Subject 391-3-26 COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORIES
The purpose of these rules is to establish the procedures
required for the administration and implementation of O.C.G.A. 12-2-9 which
requires all commercial analytical laboratories submitting data for regulatory
purposes to be accredited or approved as specified in the Division's rules and
Regulations.
| (1) |
"Accreditation"
means the procedure by which an accreditation agency, a state, or the U.S.
Environmental Agency evaluates and acknowledges a program as meeting certain
predetermined qualifications and standards. |
| (2) |
"Accreditation Agency" means an agency
that meets the requirements of
391-3-26-.04 (2) and which the
Division has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for the purposes of
391-3-26-.04 (1)(c). |
| (3) |
"Approved" means the acceptance by the
Division of a commercial analytical laboratory by accreditation or
certification. The approval shall be valid only for the time period specified
by the accreditation or certification agency and valid for the test included in
the scope of the accreditation or certification. |
| (4) |
"Certification" means the procedure by
which an accreditation agency, a state, or the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency evaluates and acknowledges a program as meeting certain predetermined
qualifications or standards. |
| (5) |
"Commercial Analytical Laboratory" means a laboratory which performs analyses
of environmental samples or media on a fee or contract basis. A laboratory
operated by the state, a city, county, or local authority, or an industrial
facility is typically not considered a commercial analytical laboratory for the
purposes of these rules. |
| (6) |
"Data
Submitted for Regulatory Purposes" means any data which is to be submitted to
the Division, or required to be retained on site for review by the Division,
which is required by a permit, rule, statute, or order; except for the
following:
| (a) |
Initial Hazardous Sites
Response Act notification data submitted under Chapter
391-3-19-.04. Data submitted to a
follow-up to such notification would be covered under this rule. |
| (b) |
Data which is obtained from the analyses
of environmental media if such analyses is performed in situ (examples of this
include but not limited to pH, chlorine residual, opacity, turbidity, on-site
instrumental sampling, continuous instrumental monitoring, stream biological
sampling data, etc.). |
| (c) |
Tests for
which accreditation is not available from a third party or from another
state. |
|
| (7) |
"Director"
means the Director of the Environmental Protection Division of the Department
of Natural Resources. |
| (8) |
"Division" means the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of
Natural Resources. |
| (9) |
"Laboratory"
means a body that calibrates and/or tests. A laboratory may be at a permanent
location, a temporary location, or may be a mobile facility. In any cases where
a laboratory forms part of any organization that carries out other activities
besides testing, the term "laboratory" refers only to those parts of that
organization that are involved in the testing process. |
| (10) |
"Test" means the technical operation
that consists of the determination of one or more characteristics or
performance of a given product, material, equipment, organism, physical
phenomenon, process, or service according to a specified procedure. |
Data submitted for regulatory purposes, as defined above, by
a commercial analytical laboratory or a customer of a commerical analytical
laboratory, shall be accepted by the Division only if the commercial analytical
laboratory is approved in accordance with
391-3-26-.04 below at the time the
tests are performed.
| (1) |
A commercial
analytical laboratory is approved for submitting data for regulatory purposes
in the State of Georgia if the laboratory meets any of the following
requirements specific to the analytical data submitted:
| (a) |
Accreditation or certification by another
State acceptable to the Director. |
| (b) |
Accreditation or certification by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. |
| (c) |
Accreditation or certification by an
accreditation agency, acceptable to the Director, and which the Division has
entered into a Memorandum of Understanding of these purposes. |
| (d) |
Certification by the Division pursuant to
O.C.G.A. 12-5-174(a)(3) and DNR Rule
391-3-5-.29 for drinking water
tests. |
|
| (2) |
Accreditation
agencies shall use Guide 25 (as amended) of the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) as the basis for determining the ability of a laboratory
to satisfactorily carry out analyses. Additional requirements may be determined
on a case by case basis depending on the specific analyses and the scopes of
accreditation. Limits on scopes of accreditation acceptable to the Division may
be stipulated in the Memorandum of Understanding with the accreditation
agency. |
| (3) |
The Director, or his
designee, may enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with accreditation
agencies specifying criteria to be included in any such
accreditation. |
| (4) |
Approval in
Georgia shall be valid only for the time period specified by the accreditation
agency, State or EPA, and valid only for the tests included in the scope of the
accreditation. |
| (1) |
The Division
will maintain a list of all approved accrediting agencies, including States,
and such list may be made available upon request. |
| (2) |
Any person submitting data prepared by a
commercial analytical laboratory to the Division for regulatory purposes shall
stipulate that the laboratory is approved. The stipulation shall include the
name of the accrediting agency, the scope of the accreditation relevant to the
data submitted (such as drinking water, non-potable water, air, solid/hazardous
wastes, etc.), the accreditation number issued by the accrediting agency, the
date of accreditation, and the expiration date of accreditation. This
stipulation shall be by one of the following methods:
| (a) |
The stipulation shall be submitted with
each regulatory report; or |
| (b) |
The
stipulation shall be submitted in a separate document with the first regulatory
report of the calendar year. No additional submittal will be necessary for the
year unless another laboratory is used or there is a change in the
accreditation or certification status of the laboratory. |
|
| (3) |
Data submitted without such stipulation
shall not be accepted by the Division and will be returned. |
The responsibility for submitting acceptable analytical data
lies with the person subject to regulation under Georgia's environmental
statutes, permits, and rules. Use of an approved commercial laboratory does not
necessa- rily mean that the data submitted was properly prepared or that the
submittal satisfies the regulatory requirement.
These rules shall become effective on July 1, 2000.
Commercial analytical laboratories meeting the requirements of
391-3-26-.04 may voluntarily be
approved prior to July 1, 2000.
