This is an announcement from the Texas Commision on Environmental Quality on acceptability of lab data:
Starting July 1, 2008, analytical data submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that is related to permitting or remediation must be generated by a lab that our Texas Laboratory Accreditation Program (TLAP) has accredited under the NELAC standard for matrices, methods, and parameters of analysis, unless:
The lab is an in-house lab and meets one of these criteria:
The lab performs work for its owner, for another company with a unit located on the same site, or without compensation for a governmental agency or charitable organization.
The lab is in another state and is accredited or inspected by that state.
The lab is accredited under federal law.
The data are needed for emergency-response activities and no TLAP-accredited lab is available.
The lab supplies data for which we do not offer accreditation.
Starting July 1, 2008, we will accept analytical data for a permitting or remediation decision only if the data comply with all applicable rules for the regulatory program involved and:
the lab generating the data is NELAC-accredited by TLAP,
we have approved an exception as described above, or
the data were generated on or before June 30, 2008.
This policy is based on the requirements of Title 30 Texas Administrative Code Sections 25.4 and 25.6. As well as applying to data submitted to us, this policy applies to analytical data kept on site for review by our staff.
NELAC stands for National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference, now part of the NELAC Institute (http://www.nelac-institute.org/).
