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QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS: A USELESS PAPER EXERCISE OR VALUABLE AID?
Citation:
Schumacher, B A. QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT PLANS: A USELESS PAPER EXERCISE OR VALUABLE AID? Presented at 21st Annual National Conference on Managing Quality Systems for Environmental Programs, Phoenix, AZ, April 8-11, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
The overall objective of this task is to provide the Agency with improved state-of-the-science guidance, strategies, and techniques to more accurately and effectively collect environmental samples. Under this umbrella objective, research is being conducted to: (a) reduce/minimize the loss of VOCs during sample collection, handling, and preservation, (b) collect undisturbed surface sediments so that the effects of recent depositional events (e.g., flooding or dredging) can clearly be delineated as to their influence on the contamination concentrations present downstream (or where the sediments are deposited), and (c) to determine an effective method to effectively and efficiently separate asbestos in soils from the rest of the soil matrix while maintaining the integrity (i.e, no fiber size reduction) of the asbestos fibers.
Description:
Two perspectives on the fundamental question "Are quality assurance project plans (QAPPS) a useless paper exercise or a valuable aid?" will be explored. These perspectives include those of a Branch Chief (i.e., the supervisor/manager) and an active researcher. As a Branch Chief, when I approach my staff and mention the letters QA, their general autonomic response is a sigh, eyes rolling up to the heavens looking for divine escape possibilities, or the "I knew I should have stayed home today" look. To either exasperate one's staff, tell them that for their new project, they will have to prepare a QAPP or that they need to reexamine and update an existing QAPP. Little do the scientists realize the true value of the QAPP from the managerial perspective, QAPPs are a vital source of information that the branch chief can use for a multitude of different purposes. Research conducted within Characterization and Monitoring Branch (CMB) generally are basic research with a few projects falling into the applied research category. Research areas within CMB are diverse and include: improving soil sampling methods with an emphasis on soils contaminated with volatile organic compounds, geophysics, chemometrics, geostatistics, ground water research, technology verification studies, laboratory accreditation, and technology support projects. With this marked diversity of projects, a Branch Chief can not be an expert in all the different areas. However, through the proper reading and reviewing of the QAPPS, the basic premise(s) of the research project can be learned. This basic knowledge can, in turn, be used during planning exercises as well as during progress and peer reviews. Additionally, the branch chief's review provides the scientist with a different perspective on the project and can help ensure that the research is on the right track. As a research scientist, one of the two greatest benefits to preparing a QAPP (besides getting the boss off your back) is that it gets all your ideas down in writing so that you can remember them, think about them, edit them, and come up with a scientifically sound approach to the research that needs to be accomplished. The other benefit of preparing the QAPP is the opportunity of peer review. The benefit added by getting the opinions and viewpoints of different scientists, not directly involved in the research, is invaluable. It is during the peer review process that ideas the researcher did not originally think about are presented, different approaches are introduced, and questions are asked that make the scientist think about exactly what they are proposing to do. This peer review process, which probably would not occur unless a QAPP was prepared, can only make for a better research project. Thus, to answer the question of "Are QAPPs a useless paper exercise or a valuable aid?", this branch chief/research scientist would have to answer "a valuable aid." This is an abstract for presentation which has been reviewed by the U.S. EPA; views expressed do not necessarily represent EPA policy.