Accredited Labs are a Key To Understanding and Responding to State's Drinking Water Challenges
Safe drinking water in California is not random or accidental. Quality drinking water demands professional treatment, monitoring, scrutiny, and attention to detail. To maintain the State Water Board's stringent regulatory standards, water must be collected and tested regularly at one of hundreds of laboratories accredited by the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP), managed by a team within the board's Division of Drinking Water.
ELAP plays a crucial role in upholding the federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards by ensuring the quality of analytical data is consistent and reliable from lab to lab. Only with consistent data can water systems make informed decisions about contaminants in the context of adhering to those drinking water standards. The work done at these labs is broader than that of drinking water. ELAP-certified labs also analyze wastewater and hazardous waste. More than 500 labs are accredited in California, and about 400 are equipped to perform drinking water analysis.
"You can't clean up something unless you can measure it, and to measure it, the labs have to be operating from the same standards," said Christine Sotelo, Manager of ELAP. "The challenge is to keep our program updated about new contaminants and the new (testing) methods out there."
The origins of ELAP can be traced back to 1986 when the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended to ensure the accuracy of data used to inform vital decisions about drinking water. By 1989, the California Environmental Laboratory Improvement Act established a fee-supported accreditation program for environmental health labs. The act stipulates that accreditation is required for any environmental laboratory producing analytical data for California regulatory agencies.
Once a lab navigates the rigorous process to obtain accreditation, the work is ongoing. Every lab must undergo Proficiency Testing every year and get an "acceptable" score to maintain its accreditation.
With all the data coming out of the labs, public water systems need qualified staff to understand it and respond accordingly. That is where the operator certification program comes in. Managed through the board's Division of Financial Assistance, the program ensures that California's 35,000 water treatment and water distribution operators are equipped with the knowledge and skills to implement the proper treatment procedures.
ELAP's work is critical because a consistent approach to testing and analysis brings about reliable data for water professionals. With this data, water systems make informed decisions that result in high-quality drinking water delivered to millions of Californians.
