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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration tells us that about 70 percent of the human body is made up of water and, coincidentally, more than 70 percent of Earth is covered in water. Common sense tells us that we all would like this water to be clean.

To that end, in 2020, the International Accreditation Service (IAS) embarked on a new program in conjunction with the state of California to ensure that laboratories conduct environmental testing and gather robust laboratory data in accordance with common national standards.

Some background for the uninitiated: In 1978, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated a laboratory certification program for laboratories involved in analyzing drinking water and delegated the authority for operation of the program to state agencies. Over the ensuing years, many states expanded this program to include other environmental media. As a result of efforts that began in 1987, a National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program was created and is now managed by The NELAC Institute (TNI).

California then adopted TNI’s standards in 2020, requiring accredited laboratories to implement these changes over a three-year period. IAS now accredits laboratories conducting environmental testing under the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) by virtue of IAS’ recognition by TNI as a non-governmental accreditation body.

The California ELAP oversees hundreds of laboratories in California and other states that regulate testing of drinking water, wastewater discharges and hazardous waste cleanup sites throughout California. Under new regulations, laboratories are required to be accredited to the TNI standard for managing all factors that potentially can affect the quality of laboratory results. Previously, laboratories were required to meet only the requirements in the analytical methods they perform, but the TNI standard requires facilities to control a broader scope of influential factors…….Read more