What are “decision quality data” and “effective data” as defined under the Triad approach?
These two terms refer to data of known quality that are effective for making the intended decisions because sampling, analytical, and relational uncertainties have been managed to the degree necessary to meet specified goals for decision confidence. Decision quality data can be cost-effectively provided in a number of ways, depending on the decision. Early in a project, decisions will revolve around developing the conceptual site model (CSM) and testing alternative hypotheses about what contaminants are present, how they got there, and how they are distributed. Broad spectrum fixed laboratory methods may be useful screening tools to evaluate the list of potential contaminants of concern, but data users should realize that the realities of full-suite analysis means that analytical quality will not be the same for each analyte on the list. Further workup is generally required to resolve any analytical inconsistencies and to understand sample representativeness. For example, are the PCBs
