Quality Assurance Project Planning in EPA's Pacific Southwest (Region 9)

The success of an environmental program or project depends on the quality of the environmental data collected and used in decision-making which will depend significantly on the adequacy of the quality assurance project plan and how it is carried out. EPA Region 9 requires that a systematic process be used wherever possible and appropriate to plan all environmental data generation activities.

To facilitate the development of objectives EPA has developed guidelines to help state and Tribal governments develop Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) for documenting the type and quality of data needed for environmental decisions and the methods for collecting and assessing those data.

• Quality Assurance Project Planning
• Example Quality Assurance Plan
• Quality Assurance Management Planning

Quality Assurance Project Planning

The purpose of the QA Project Plan is to document planning for environmental data collection and to provide a project-specific blueprint for obtaining the type and quality of environmental data needed for a specific decision or use.

The QA Project Plan documents how quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are applied to an environmental data operation to assure that the results obtained are of the type and quality needed and expected.

• EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans
  This document provides the QA Project Plan requirements for organizations that conduct environmental data operations on behalf of EPA through contracts, financial assistance agreements, and interagency agreements.
• File EPA Region 9 Quality Assurance Project Plan Checklist (xlsx) (August 11, 2023)
  This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet provides a checklist for completing the Quality Assurance Project Plan requirements detailed in the EPA “Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) Standard.” This checklist serves as a tool to assist organizations in the development and review of QAPPs and may be tailored to meet your needs.
• Agency-Wide Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans
  EPA guidance for the development of Quality Assurance Project Plans.
• Uniform Federal Policy for Quality Assurance Project Plans
  Government-wide guidance for the development of Quality Assurance Project Plans.
• Agency-Wide Quality System Documents
  General guidance from the Quality Staff to assist in the development and implementation of a suitable Quality System for both EPA and non-EPA organizations.

Example Quality Assurance Plan

• Example Quality Assurance Project Plan for Monitoring of Surface Water Eagle Valley Reservation
  This example Quality Assurance Project Plan was created for a fictitious Tribe in Northern California who plan to conduct basic water quality monitoring on a river and its tributaries within Tribal lands. The intent was to create a basic plan which included some field measurements, along with the collection of samples for analysis for basic water quality parameters (i.e., general chemistry, nutrients, and bacteria) plus metals.

Quality Assurance Management Planning

A Quality Management Plan documents how an organization structures its quality system and describes its quality policies and procedures, criteria, areas of application, roles, responsibilities, and authorities. It also describes an organization's policies and procedures for implementing and assessing the effectiveness of the quality system.

The following document describes the elements of a quality system that are documented in a Quality Management Plan:

• Quality Management Plan (QMP) Standard
  This Standard defines the minimum requirements for QMPs for all EPA and non-EPA organizations performing environmental information operations.