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PRE-QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLAN (QAPP) AGREEMENT (PQA) (HANDOUT)
Citation:
Vega*, A, V. A. Lancaster, AND F. Weesner. PRE-QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLAN (QAPP) AGREEMENT (PQA) (HANDOUT). 19th Annual National Conference on Managing Quality Systems for Environmental Programs; EPA Initiatives in Quality Management: Quality and Environmental Information, Alburquerque, NM, 4/3-7/2000.
Description:
The Land Remediation and Pollution Control Division (LRPCD) QA Manager strives to assist LRPCD researchers in developing functional planning documents for their research projects. As part of the planning process, several pieces of information are needed, including information regarding: how the data will be collected (e.g., the proposed experimental and sampling designs); how the samples will be analyzed (including the desired data quality); and how the data will be summarized and interpreted (e.g., the statistical methods proposed for data analysis). Because most researchers are not experts in all technical areas, it is necessary to provide tools, or guidance, that aid the researcher in generating functional planning documents.
Recently, LRPCD developed tools that can be used to improve the quality of planning documents in the areas of data analysis and analytical procedures. These tools include the Pre-QAPP Agreement (PQA) and several Analytical Method Checklists (AMCs).
The Pre-QAPP Agreement is a modification to a previous NRMRL product referred to as the Project Objective Agreement (POA). In general, the PQA is the data quality objective (DQO) process for research projects. The PQA helps researchers define their project objectives by documenting how they will evaluate whether or not a project objective has been achieved. Researchers are guided to consider a descriptive or inferential data analysis approach. If the inferential approach is chosen, researchers are requested to specify the consequences of inferential decisions and how far the conclusions from the research project can be generalized.
Analytical Method Checklists (AMCs) were developed to help researchers specify project requirements when using some of the current standard EPA methods (e.g., SW-846). AMCs were developed for VOCs and SVOCs by GC/MS, and metals by ICP and AA. The checklists encourage researchers to identify project-specific requirements for the analytical laboratory, including quality control requirements. The checklists also provide a starting point for discussions with the laboratory and can be appended to the QAPP as the analytical requirements for the project once the checklist is completed.