What is NELAP?
NELAP stands for the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program and is the program that implements the National Environmental Accreditation Conference (NELAC) standards. State and federal agencies serve as accreditiong authorities with coordination facilitated by EPA to assure uniformity. Accreditation by one NELAP accrediting authority is mutually recognized by the other state and federal accrediting authorities approved under NELAP. If you want to learn more, check out EPAs website at: http://www.epa.gov/nelac/. Is ERMI an EPA CLP laboratory? No, we do not participate in EPA’s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) for analysis of samples collected from hazardous or other waste sites being scrutinized or remediated by the government.
NELAP is the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program housed within The NELAC Institute (TNI), a 501c3 non-profit organization. NELAP adopts standards (e.g. rules) that are based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and are developed through a consensus process. Oversight is provided by the NELAP Board which consists of one representative and one alternate from each of the 13 currently recognized accreditation bodies.
The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) is the program that implements the NELAC standards. States and Federal agencies serve as Accrediting Authorities with coordination facilitated by EPA to assure uniformity. Accreditation by one NELAP Accrediting Authority is mutually recognized by the other State and Federal Accrediting Authorities approved under NELAP. NELAP recognized 11 State programs as Accrediting Authorities in the summer of 1999. Additional states have begun preparing, or have already applied, for approval as Accrediting Authorities. Q: Don’t States already accredit environmental laboratories? A: Yes, but prior to NELAC, the existing State programs varied widely in scope and requirements. Some states had only drinking water laboratory accreditation, while a few accredited laboratories for drinking water, wastewater, air, and solid and hazardous waste. Currently, in order to select a laboratory to analyze samples from a given location, it is first
The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) is the program that implements the NELAC standards. State and Federal agencies serve as Accrediting Authorities with coordination facilitated by EPA to assure uniformity. Accreditation by one NELAP Accrediting Authority is mutually recognized by the other State and Federal Accrediting Authorities approved under NELAP. More…
