View
26
Download
0
Category
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Alaska Tribal Air Projects & QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS When are QAPPs Needed?. EPA Region 10. Overview. What are QAPPs? Why are Quality Assurance Project Plans needed? When are they needed? How are they done? Then …what do you do with them?. Why QA?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
Alaska Tribal Air Projects & QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS
When are QAPPs Needed?
EPA Region 10
2
What are QAPPs? Why are Quality Assurance Project Plans
needed? When are they needed? How are they done? Then…what do you do with them?
Overview
3
The purpose of QA is to help you (1) get the data you need (2) Answer questions you have (3) as cheaply and quickly as possible
QA, done right, does save you time and money
Why QA?
4
◦Plan ahead ◦Ensure everyone agrees to Goals and equipment to be used What their jobs are The schedule Who reports what to whom when
QA Makes You
5
Category 1 projects are to compare against the NAAQS standard, and require all 24 elements
Category 2-3 projects include looking at air pollution transport, air toxics, exploratory studies, or evaluating whether further measurements should be made, and require fewer of the 24 elements of a QAPP
Category 4 projects are education and outreach and may make a few qualitative measurements and only require 6 elements of a QAPP (see example on course website)
Graded Approach for Air Monitoring
Important Decisions
Less Important Decisions
6
Anyone expecting the data to be respected must have some form of quality system (remember a QAPP is just good management plus documentation)
Anyone receiving grant funds from a federal agency must have a quality system
Even one-person programs can have legally, scientifically defensible data by following these guidelines
What this means for us
7
Bank balances: the goal of our personal quality system is to not bounce checks
QA are the activities of depositing checks, checking bank balances every week, planning ahead about what bills to hold off on paying
QC is routinely balancing our checkbooks and calculating whether checks written or online payments are going to bounce
Example of QA/QC in daily life
Quality Objectives
Why are we collecting data?
9
Why are we making these measurements? How will collecting data help manage air
pollution and health risks? Can air pollution and health risks be
managed without having data?
Project Objectives
10
Quality Management Tools
Planning QA Project Plans
Doing QA Project Plans Standard Operating Procedures QA Annual Report and Work Plans
Checking Management Assessments Technical Assessments Data Quality Assessment Data Validation and Verification
11
QA Project Plans (QAPPs)Purpose To document type and quality of data
for environmental decisions; a blueprint
for the requirements for collecting and
accessing data
Responsibility Organization performing activity
Documentation Turbo-QAPP
EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans
(QA/R-5)
Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans (QA/G-5)
12
QA Project Plans (QAPPs)Explain how environmental data collection activities
are planned, implemented, documented, and assessed (checked)
QA Project Plans are required when environmental data operations occur for◦Contracts, work assignments, delivery orders◦Grants, cooperative agreements◦ Interagency agreements (when negotiated)◦Tribal-EPA agreements providing funding◦Responses to statutory or regulatory
requirements and to consent agreements
13
Common Elements in All Systematic Planning ApproachesQuestions
◦Who is making the decision based on the data?◦Why are data being collected? ◦What data are needed to make the decision?◦Why does the decision maker need that type and
quality of data? Is it the right data?◦How does the decision maker plan to use the data
to make a defensible decision?◦What are "measures of success" for the project?
Get the type, quantity, and quality of data necessary
14
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Written documents that clearly describe what you will do
Detail who will do what when things go wrong
If different people do it, but follow the same SOP, it should result in the same answer
You can print out once, then revise in pen and photocopy if different people do the work
Can be short, even ONE PAGE or less
An integral part of QA: Data Management
“if you didn’t write it down, can you prove it happened?”
16
1) Data processing (WHAT)
2) Data end use (WHY)
3) Data access (WHO)
4) Data distribution (WHERE)
5) Data storage and retrieval (HOW)
6) Data disposal (WHEN)
Six Elements of Data Management
17
Anyone expecting the data to be respected must have some form of quality system (good management plus documentation, in a QAPP)
Anyone receiving grant funds from a federal agency must have a quality system
Even one-person programs can have legally, scientifically defensible data by following the guidelines
Conclusions
18
A. Anytime you collect data with EPA fundingB. Anytime you want to have data that can be
used for the purposes for which you monitoredC. Any time you want to plan a successful
project that will be used to make a decisionD. All of the above
When is a QAPP Needed?
Quality Assurance =Good Planning =
Successful & Useful Projects!
Thanks!
Mary Manous, EPA R10AK Tribal Air
Management Anchorage, AK
April 2011
Recommended