Essential Quality Assurance and Quality Control for Microbiological Methods to Meet Federal Water Program Requirements

Oral Presentation

Prepared by P. Root
IDEXX Labs, Inc., 1 IDEXX Drive, Westbrook, ME, 04092, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 207-556-8947


ABSTRACT

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) data are required in order to have confidence in the results from analytical tests, including the reagents and equipment used to produce those results. Some of the US EPA-approved methods include specific QA/QC procedures, frequencies, and acceptance criteria, but these are considered to be the minimum controls needed to perform a method successfully. In the last Method Update Rule the EPA added additional QA/QC requirements at 40 CFR Part 136.7 for chemistry methods (US EPA Final Method Update Rule of May 18th 2012, EPA–HQ–OW–2010–0192).

This presentation will discuss essential QA/QC measures for microbiological methods using 40 CFR 136.7 as a guideline.