California ELAP Expert Review Panel

Introduction

California maintains an Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) to ensure that the State’s drinking water, wastewater, shellfish, food and hazardous waste programs have access to consistent, high-quality data. All California environmental testing laboratories are required to go through this accreditation process prior to providing analytical data used for state regulatory purposes. The ELAP program transitioned from the California Department of Public Health to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) in July 2014, and the SWRCB asked the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Authority (SCCWRP) to convene an Expert Review Panel to help the State chart ELAP's path going forward. SCCWRP has convened this independent, five-member panel to undertake a comprehensive review of the accreditation process.

To read more about the California ELAP accreditation process, click here.

Charge Questions

The ELAP Expert Review Panel has been tasked with answering the following charge questions:

What should the State’s role be in the accreditation process? Are the philosophies, objectives and scope of ELAP clearly defined? Are they appropriate? Does ELAP have the capacity to support the program?
How can California’s accreditation standards be improved?
What should California’s approach be to recognizing accreditation by other states, national entities or private accreditation services? Should California rejoin NELAP?
How can ELAP’s laboratory inspection program be made more robust? What are the appropriate qualifications for auditor/inspector team members in each of the specialty areas that ELAP certifies laboratories?
How can California improve its proficiency testing program for quantifying laboratory quality?
How can California improve its process for responding to concerns expressed by: a) laboratories that have concerns about the certification process, or b) clients who have concerns about the quality of a laboratory that has been certified by ELAP?
How should ELAP plan for future programmatic, testing and management needs?
Which program improvements are most urgent and can be accomplished within existing resources and authorities? Which are the highest-priority, longer-term program improvements?

Calendar

Date	Event	Supporting Documents
2015
March 17-19, 2015	First meeting of the Panel	Agenda Biographies of Guest Speakers Background Materials Provided by ELAP Supporting Materials Provided by Guest Speakers *Morning Session Presentations* Introduction (Steve Weisberg) Origin and Goals of ELAP (Karen Larsen) Program Overview (Christine Sotelo) Lab Inspections (Angela Anand) Staff Qualifications (Christine Sotelo) Proficiency Testing (Renee Spears) *Guest Speaker Presentations* NELAP Evaluation (Kristin Brown) Intercalibration Exercises (Rich Gossett) Commercial Lab Perspective (Andy Eaton) Municipal Lab Perspective (David Kimbrough) 2012 Accredited Labs Survey (Judith Morgan) Independent Lab Perspective (Judith Morgan) Report-Out (Lara Phelps) Public Comments Received
June 23, 2015	Informational webinar for the Panel to hear pros/cons about adding quality system standards to laboratory operations	Agenda Presentations Introduction to the Webinar Municipal Lab Perspective (Robin Cook) Commercial Lab Perspective (Nan Thomey) Public Comments Received
August 10-13, 2015	Second meeting of the Panel	Agenda Background Materials Provided by ELAP Presentations Opening Remarks (Lara Phelps) Actions Taken In Response to Initial Panel Recommendations (Christine Sotelo) Stakeholder Advisory Committee Comments (Andy Eaton) How California Can Develop Auditing Standards (Chris Gunning) State-Specific or Hybrid Standards (Alfredo Sotomayor) ELAP View on Developing Auditing Standards (Christine Sotelo) Challenges Faced by California ELAP (Christine Sotelo) Alternate Models for Using Third Parties (Chris Gunning) Arguments for a Third-Party Program (Bruce Godfrey) Concerns with Using Third Parties (David Kimbrough) Panel Recommendations (Lara Phelps) Public Comments Received Video Recording of the August 10 Meeting Video Recording of the August 12 Report Out
October 14-16, 2015	Third meeting of the Panel	Agenda Panel Report (Draft for Stakeholder Feedback) Presentations ELAP Update (Christine Sotelo) Stakeholder Advisory Committee's Comments on ELAP (Andy Eaton) ELAP Expert Review Panel Recommendations (Lara Phelps) Stakeholder Advisory Committee's Comments on Report (Andy Eaton) Public Comments Received
October 22, 2015	Release of Panel's Year One Final Report	Findings and Recommendations by the Expert Review Panel for the State of California's Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program: Year One Final Report (PDF)
February 8, 2016	Quarterly progress webinar	Agenda ELAP Work Plan for the Implementation of a Sustainable Accreditation Program Video Recording of the February 8 Webinar
June 7, 2016	Quarterly progress webinar	Agenda Video Recording of the June 7 Webinar
October 31, 2016	Quarterly progress webinar	Agenda Presentations Overview and Introduction (Steve Weisberg) ELAP Update (Christine Sotelo) SAC/ELTAC Feedback (Andy Eaton) Video Recording of the October 31 Webinar
January 31-February 2, 2017	Year One follow-up review by the Panel	Agenda Background Material Provided to the Panel January 31 Presentations Welcome and Introductions (Steve Weisberg) Overview of Actions Taken (Christine Sotelo) Improvements Resulting from Actions (Christine Sotelo) Management System Implementation (Jacob Oaxaca) Staff Training (Katelyn McCarthy) Lab Standards and Regulation (Christine Sotelo) Vision for the Future (Christine Sotelo) ELTAC and SAC Perspectives (Andy Eaton) State Agency Partner Committee Perspective (Bruce LaBelle) Results of U.S. EPA Program Audit (Andy Lincoff) U.S. EPA Perspective (Dan Hautman) Perspective of Inspected Labs (Patrick Jones Jill Brodt) Small Lab Challenges (Daniel Jackson) Video Recording of the January 31 Meeting February 2 Presentation Report Out by the Panel Video Recording of the February 2 Meeting
March 31, 2017	Release of Panel's Year Two final report	Progress Assessment and Final Recommendations by the Expert Review Panel for the State of California’s Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (PDF)

Panel Members

The five panelists on the State of California ELAP Expert Review Panel have been tasked with making recommendations to improve the California ELAP accreditation process. The panelists come from a variety of backgrounds and U.S. states – none in California – and were selected by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Authority in consultation with the California State Water Resources Control Board and a Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

Jordan Adelson

Dr. Jordan Adelson is Director of the U.S. Navy’s Laboratory Quality and Accreditation Office and is Chair of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Environmental Data Quality Workgroup, which develops and makes recommendations on DoD policies regarding environmental sampling and testing operations.

Full resume

Stephen Arms

Stephen Arms is Administrator of the Florida Department of Health’s Environmental Laboratory Certification Program, where he supervises staff assessors and is responsible for decision-making in all areas of certification.

Full resume

Mitzi Miller

Mitzi Miller is Vice President of Environmental Programs for Dade Moeller & Associates. Mitzi has served as a third party assessor to support State laboratory accreditation programs in Louisiana, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Illinois.

Full resume

Lara Phelps

Lara Phelps is Senior Advisor for Measurement, Monitoring, Modeling, and Laboratory Science for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Science Advisor. She is EPA’s national expert in the area of laboratory accreditation and assessment and serves as the Designated Federal Official for the EPA’s Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board.

Full resume

David Speis

David Speis is the President and Chief Executive Officer for QC Laboratories, where he oversees a company that provides a full suite of analytical chemistry and microbiological services to the environmental, food science, pharmaceutical and dairy industries.

Full resume

Contact

For more information about the California ELAP Expert Review Panel, and to send comments and correspondence to the Panel, please contact Dr. Stephen Weisberg, 714-755-3203 or stevew@sccwrp.org.

To send comments directly to ELAP staff in Sacramento, please contact program Chief Christine Sotelo, 916-341-5175 or christine.sotelo@waterboards.ca.gov.

To be added to the ELAP Expert Review Panel email listserve to receive occasional updates about panel meetings and other announcements, please contact Scott Martindale, 714-755-3240 or scottm@sccwrp.org.

This page was last updated on: 6/21/2019