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IN PURSUIT OF AN INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION
Citation:
JOHNSON, L. S. IN PURSUIT OF AN INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION. Presented at 26th Annual Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems, Cleveland, OH, June 11 - 14, 2007.
Description:
In the mid-1990's, the USEPA began the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program in order to provide purchasers of environmental technology with independently acquired, quality-assured, test data, upon which to base their purchasing decisions. From the beginning, a strong program of quality assurance was specifically devised for ETV and was documented in the ETV Quality and Management Plan. During the intervening years, the ETV program and accompanying quality system, has continued to evolve. One feature of the quality system has remained constant: EPA QA staff continue to provide QA oversight for the program. This has created a conundrum for the program as the actual technology testing moves toward economic self-sufficiency (i.e. vendors pay for testing), but QA oversight remains in-house. It has presented a particularly interesting problem for collaborating with other countries where technology verification programs are also being developed and reciprocity is desired. Tapping into existing resources for accreditation and certification in the international conformity assessment arena may be a viable approach, but undoubtedly some infrastructure must be developed to replace the hands-on oversight that has historically been provided by EPA QA staff. Discussion of this approach and other activities related to development of an international approach to environmental technology verification will be the focus of this presentation.