National Program Manager for Regional Laboratories Activities
The National Program Manager for Regional Laboratories (NPM) was created in 2019 to support EPA’s efforts to strengthen the Agency’s Regional Laboratories and to support the Laboratory Enterprise (LE). The NPM works closely with the Regional and other EPA Offices, to accomplish activities such as:
- Align the budget to support the Regional Laboratories;
- Establish a performance metric to assess the responsiveness of the Regional Laboratories in meeting customer needs;
- Increase internal and external awareness of the high-quality analytical services provided by the Regional Laboratories to the Agency, states, Tribes and local communities; and
- Identify priorities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of LE operations.
Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency
The NPM is working on several projects that are aimed at improving effectiveness and efficiency across the Laboratory Enterprise (LE).
- Operational Improvements
Develop products, processes and communication materials that focus on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the operations of the components of the LE and monitor progress toward improvements. This includes, but is not limited to actions such as, increasing adoption of Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and improving the consistency of sample tracking and science data management. - Equipment Effort
Develop best practices that facilitate the efficient utilization of high-end equipment through capacity sharing and reusing such equipment capacity across the Agency. - Guidelines on Validation of Non-Regulatory Chemical and Radiochemical Methods
These guidelines provide a consistent approach for the validation and communication of newly developed or modified non-regulatory chemical and radiochemical methods. This document provides new concepts to assist the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) in both validating methods for non-regulatory purposes and communicating the results in a consistent manner. It may also be used by external bodies to communicate their method validation results.
Guidelines on Validation of Non-Regulatory Chemical and Radiochemical Methods (PDF) - Method Validation Summary for SW-846 Methods 3512 and 8327
This document from U.S. EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management uses Table 1 from the guidelines above to provide a summary of method validation results for EPA SW-846 Methods 3512 and 8327.
EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management - Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery SW-846 Methods 3512 and 8327 Validation Summary (pdf) - Method Validation Summary Table Template
This document is intended to be a fillable template version of Table 1 from the guidelines to assist in developing your own method validation summary.
Fillable Template for Method Validation Summary Table (pdf)
Increasing Collaboration
The NPM is developing several products that promote collaboration across the Laboratory Enterprise (LE). Many of these products are made possible through the collaboration among LE staff, other EPA offices, external partners, and key stakeholders.
-
Lab Enterprise Council
The Laboratory Enterprise Council (LEC) is a cross-agency council with senior Agency representatives from across the LE and is chaired by the NPM Executive lead. It operates with a cross-Agency perspective to increase collaboration, coordination, and communication among the LE components, and improve effectiveness and efficiency of the laboratory operations. -
Environmental Methods Forum
The Environmental Methods Forum (EMF or Forum) was established to ensure consistency and quality, while still allowing for programmatic flexibility, in processes for developing non-regulatory analytical methods. -
Terms Used to Describe the Standing of U.S. EPA Methods
The EPA relies on methods for the analysis of samples for environmental contaminants and uses many terms (e.g., regulatory, promulgated, approved, etc.) to describe the standing of these methods (includes aspects like status and type). This document compiles terms to promote a better understanding of them for both EPA personnel and external parties (e.g., states, laboratories, and the public). Terms Used to Describe the Standing of U.S. EPA Methods (PDF) -
Regional Work
The Regional Laboratory Network provides the analytical, technical and programmatic support that is critical to accomplishing the Agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment. The Regional Laboratories ensure that analytical and technical expertise are available at the Regional level and are well positioned to rapidly address the ever-changing needs of a variety of environmental programs and help meet State and local partners’ needs.Collaboration, both internally within the Agency and externally, is essential to the work of the Regional Laboratories. Laboratories often work together and share their expertise with other laboratories within the Regional Laboratory Network. In addition, Regional Laboratories collaborate with outside entities, such as key stakeholders and community partners. One great example of internal and external collaboration is the Idaho Water Science Center of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) working with EPA Region 8 and Region 10 to collect and analyze fish tissue in the Kootenai River watershed downstream of Libby Dam. Collaborations like this are integral to the work of the Regional Laboratory Network and the success of the Agency as a whole.
Performance Metrics
An important function of the NPM Team is facilitating the development and administration of Laboratory Enterprise (LE) performance measures. In early FY 2020, the NPM team worked with Regional Laboratory leadership to develop two new metrics: “Number of Regional Laboratories meeting 80% sample analysis timeliness target” and “Percentage of Regional Laboratory sample analyses delivered on time”. These metrics are tracked on a monthly basis and have been incorporated on the Agency-wide performance metric tracking system and component of ‘lean management’ at EPA.
Timeliness of laboratory sample analysis delivery is an important indicator of meeting customer needs. The NPM Team gathers and analyzes analysis-level delivery data each month and continues to work with Regional Laboratory partners to improve efficiencies.