EPA Contract Laboratory Program

The EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) has responsibility for managing the analysis programs required under the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The approved analytical methods are designed to analyze water, soil, and sediment from potentially hazardous waste sites to determine the presence or absence of certain environmentally harmful organic compounds. The methods described here all require the use of GC/MS. 

Hall et al. (1985) reported that no 1,2-diphenylhydrazine (less than pg/L) was detected in the Nanticoke River near the Chesapeake Bay. The analytical method involved liquid-liquid extraction, concentration, and. analysis by GC/MS. The Contract Laboratory Program statistical database (queried April 13, 1987) reported that 1 2-diphenylhydrazine has been detected n water at i of 357 hazardous waste sites at a concentration of (96 ppb (CLPSDB 1987), and has been reported at 7 of 117, sites. n the national Priority List database (ATSDR 1990) The U.S. EPA Contract laboratory Program uses GC methods to analyze the contaminants of interest. Since 1,2-diphenylhydrazine oxidize, to azobenzene in the GC injector port and both 1,2-diphenylhydrazine and azobenzene, have the same GC retention time and mass spectra, reports of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine from the Contract Laboratory Program may actually represent detections of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine, azobenzene, or both (see Chapter 6 for more details). 

The method for analyzing soil in the EPA Contract Laboratory Program involves the extraction of isophorone using methylene chloride followed by analysis by GC/MS. The usual detection limit is 330 ppb, although the exact detection limit is matrix dependent. 

EPA. 1987a. U.S. EPA contract laboratory program. Statement of work for organic analysis. U.S. EPA, Washington, DC. 

Most Superfund data are obtained through the EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP). Data are produced by approximately one hundred independent laboratories and utilized by the ten EPA Regions. The results of the analyses are routinely reviewed and validated against standard criteria to assure that they are of known quality, applicable for their intended use, and legally admissible (8.9). 

EPA. US EPA Contract Laboratory Program. Statement of Work for Organic Analysis, US EPA, Washington, DC, 1987. 

The EPA Contract Laboratory Program under Superfund (CERCLA) provides another example of how blanks and detection limits are treated.(17)(18) With respect to blanks, the statements of work specify that the laboratory should not blank correct sample responses. In the case of organics analyses, the EPA evaluator and/or data auditor has the authority to blank correct sample responses. In practice this Is never done. For both organics and Inorganics, the absolute blank level Is primarily used as a control to determine If samples need to be reanalyzed. Detection limits are based on replicate analyses of a standard at 3-5 times the required detection limit concentration. The Instrument detection limit Is calculated as being equal to 3 times the standard deviation of the measured value. Since blank correction is not permitted or not done, sample results will all be biased high by an amount equal to the blank response. The absolute blank value (actually usually a multiple of 5 or 10 times the blank value) rather than... 

A number of efforts have taken place to establish conventions of reporting codes. Kiese include, for example, work done by the American Chemical Society Committee on Environmental Improvement, wcrk done by a sub-committee of the American Society for Testing and Materials, the International Joint Commission between the United States and Canada, conventions established by the EPA contract laboratory program and conventions being established by the STORET low level work group, in addition, there have been numerous conventions set at grass-roots levels by individual EPA, state and private water testing laboratories. 

Second-party accreditation is used widely in the United States, with many major companies, such as Ford, and official bodies, such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acting as key players. The best-known public sector QA requirements are those of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for registration and compliance with GLP and GMP, and the EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP). The FDA requires manufacturers... 

The U S EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) is a national network of EPA personnel, commercial laboratories and support contractors. The CLP supports the EPA s Superfund program, created under the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Corqtensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and currently under the 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). The CLP s primary service is the provision of anal34ical data of known and documented quality, through its routine analytical services, to its customers. All analytical services are performed by EPA-approved contract laboratories that must meet stringent requirements and standards in order to be a part of the CLP. 

Certain laboratories can, after a contract has been awarded, register under the Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) of the EPA. To earn a contract, one or more specifically prepared samples must be analyzed under very similar conditions to those used in standard protocols. Only if the data are deemed satisfactory will a contract be awarded. Further evaluation samples must be analyzed at three-month intervals afterward to ensure that performance is being maintained. 

The analysis programs of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) are managed through the EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP). 

EPA. 1988c. Contract Laboratory Program statement of work for organics analysis multi-media multi-component 2/88. 

Heptachlor has been detected in an estimated 1.4% of the groundwater samples taken at NPL hazardous waste sites included in EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) at an estimated geometric mean concentration of 0.78 ppb for the positive samples (CLPSD 1989). The compound was not listed in the CLP Statistical Database (CLPSD) of chemicals detected in surface water samples collected at NPL sites. Heptachlor epoxide was not listed in the CLPSD of chemicals detected in groundwater or surface water samples collected at NPL sites. Note that the information from the CLPSD includes data from NPL sites only. 

EPA. 1987a. USEPA Contract Laboratory Program Statement of Work for Organics Analysis. Dated 10/86 revised 8/87. 

According to the VIEW Database (1989), silver has been found at 27 sites on the National Priority List of 1,177 sites. The frequency of these sites within the United States can be seen in Figure 5-1. EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) statistical database indicates that silver has been detected at 100% of the 2,783 Superfund hazardous waste sites that have had samples of all media analyzed by the CLP (CLP 1988). 

Silver has been detected with a geometric mean concentration of 6.0 pg/L in groundwater samples from 613 of the 2,783 (22%) hazardous waste sites included in EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) statistical database (CLP 1988). It has also been detected in surface water samples from 552 of the 2,783 (20%) sites in the CLP statistical database with a geometric mean concentration of 9.0 pg/L (CLP 1988). 

The principal source of chlorobenzene in water is release from chemical manufacturing facilities. Dow Chemical Company estimated that 0.1% of its annual production enters waters (EPA 1980a). Perry et al. (1979) found chlorobenzene in 6/63 industrial effluent in concentrations up to 100 pg/L. Based on 1,338 samples collected from about 1980 to 1983, the medium concentration of chlorobenzene in waste effluent was < 3 ppb and was detected in 54 samples. The total amount released to the environment was not reported (Staples et al. 1985). Chlorobenzene has been detected in both surface and groundwater samples at hazardous waste sites. Data from the Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) Statistical Database indicate that chlorobenzene occurred in surface water at 13 sites at a geometric mean concentration of 17 ppb in positive samples and in... 

EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (EPA 1984b) requires the participating laboratories to meet the Contract Required Detection Level (CRDL) for selenium of 5xl0 9 g selenium/mL (5 pg selenium/L) using proven instruments and approved analytical techniques, including ICP and AA methods. 

EPA. 1984b. Contract Laboratory Program Statement of Work. Inorganic analysis, multi-media, multi-concentration. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Contract Laboratory Program. SOW No. 784. 

Quantitation and Detection Limits Reviews. Because the quality of laboratory analyses of chemical contamination is critical to the validity of any conclusions about risk, EPA initiated the Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) to ensure consistent, high quality analyses. By comparing reported quantitation limits for samples at a site to quantitation limits specified by CLP, Risk Assistant will provide a report on a key feature of analytical quality sensitivity. 

The Contract Laboratory Program procedure required delivery of specified documents included data summary forms, calibration data, chromatograms, and mass spectra and were generally shipped by air freight. Upon receipt by EPA, the documents were reviewed for data usability which was based on consideration of completeness of documentation and adherence to quality control requirements... 

Instrument detection limit (IDL) A term utilized in the EPA Inorganic Contract Laboratory Program. The IDL is three times the standard deviation obtained for the analysis of a standard solution (each analyte in reagent water) at a concentration of three to five times that of the IDL on three nonconsecutive days with seven consecutive measurements per day. 

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