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i,L1 <br />ACZ Laboratories, Inc. August 10, 2007 <br />' Quality Assurance Plan Version 12 <br />SOPAD018.08.07.12 Page 3 of 96 <br />' 1 INTRODUCTION <br />ACZ Laboratories, Inc. is an environmental testing laboratory that provides data to clients primarily for regulatory <br />' purposes. Samples are analyzed for compliance with federal programs including the Resource Conservation <br />Recovery Act (RCRA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and Clean Water Act (CWA). Environmental <br />compliance and management decisions are based on the analytical data provided, which are critical to the <br />expenditure of large amounts of money; are important to public health safety; are important in evaluating, <br />' monitoring, and protecting the environment; and are often essential in litigation. To this effect, analytical data <br />must always be technically sound, accurate, and legally defensible or it is useless to the end user. <br />' An effective Quality Assurance and Quality Control program is the cornerstone of the generation of reliable <br />analytical data. ACZ's Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) outlines the quality assurance and quality control <br />objectives, policies, and procedures determined to be necessary to meet the requirements of the EPA, federal <br />1 government entities, state agencies, other regulatory authorities, and our clients. This document provides the <br />necessary guidelines to ensure all ACZ employees have sufficient knowledge and training to perform their job <br />responsibilities in a manner that guarantees all data reported to all of our clients is accurate, reliable, technically <br />' sound, legally defensible, and impartial. <br />For data to be accurate, it must be of known and documented quality. The word "quality" has many different <br />meanings, but for the purposes of environmental testing activities can be stated simply as "conformance to <br />' requirements." Conforming to requirements allows objective measurements to be applied, rather than subjective <br />opinions, to determine when work is of good quality. Quality control refers to all activities that ensure accuracy <br />(i.e. good quality) of the data. It requires action(s) to be taken and is typically included as part of the procedure. <br />' Quality assurance provides the records of the results obtained from the required action(s) and refers to the ability <br />of the laboratory to demonstrate or prove to an outside party that the quality of the data is what the laboratory <br />states it is. Quality assurance relies heavily on documentation, and to be effective, the documentation must (1) <br />assure the quality control procedures are being implemented as required (2) assure the reported data reflect the <br />' sample as it was received, meaning sample mix-up was avoided, the sample was properly preserved prior to <br />analysis, etc. (3) facilitate traceability of an analytical result and (4) be subjected to reasonable precautions to <br />protect data from loss, damage, theft, and internal or external tampering. <br />' Quality Policy Statement: To maintain an effective QA/QC program, continually improve the quality of our <br />environmental testing services, and consistently provide clients with technically sound and legally defensible <br />' data, in a timely manner, the management of ACZ recognizes the importance of its commitment to: <br />• Ensuring good professional practice by well-trained and qualified employees with the necessary experience <br />and skills to carry out their organizational functions and to meet or exceed ACZ's standards for the quality <br />' and reliability of its testing services. <br />• Ensuring the data provided to our clients is of known and documented quality, accurate, and impartial. <br />• Ensuring that all quality assurance and quality control policies and procedures are communicated to and <br />understood by all employees, and that they are implemented by all employees in their work. <br />' • Ensuring that all aspects of the business operations are conducted in a manner that adheres to the NELAC <br />Standards and all of ACZ's policies and procedures documented in the QAP, SOPS, emails, memos, etc. <br />• Upholding the spirit and intent of ACZ's Ethics Program and implementing the requirements of the program. <br />' 2773 Downhill Drive 970-879-6590 <br />Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 www.acz.com <br />