Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program

IL ELAP Updates

On June 1, 2007 the IEPA updated the methods and analytes available for accreditation. Federal regulations were recently finalized approving updated methods for the analysis of wastewater samples. Additionally, the USEPA withdrew approval for some methods. The IEPA has revised our Scope of Accreditation so that approved methods are available for accreditation. As there may be some instances where a withdrawn method needs to be used (e.g., existing contracts or permits), the IEPA has not dropped the withdrawn methods. It is the responsibility of the laboratory to assure that appropriate methods are used.

The Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program expects that laboratories will update their Scopes of Accreditation (i.e., select newly approved methods) at the time of their annual accreditation renewal. If a laboratory chooses to download an application and request an update to its scope mid-year, that application will be processed in the order received after initial and annual renewal applications are processed. The thirty-day time limit for the processing of applications will not apply to mid-year requests.

On July 1, 2002 the IEPA will implement a new  schedule of fees for the Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (IL ELAP). The new fee schedule will be:

On July 24, 2001 Governor Ryan signed into law Public Act 92-0147, establishing an Environmental Laboratory Certification Committee.  The duties of the Committee are defined in the Act.  In summary, the Committee's duties are to work with IEPA personnel to develop a fee schedule that will support the Agency's laboratory accreditation program.  Fees become effective when the committee concurs with a fee schedule proposed by the IEPA.  After reviewing the costs of operating the accreditation program and negotiations between the committee and the IEPA regarding various formats and levels of support, the IEPA proposed, and the committee concurred with the above fees.

The Director of the IEPA appoints the membership of the committee.  The Act defines the membership of the committee as one person representing accredited county or municipal public water supply laboratories, one person representing the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC), one person representing accredited sanitary district or waste water treatment plant laboratories, 3 persons representing accredited environmental commercial laboratories duly incorporated in the State of Illinois and employing 20 or more people, 2 persons representing accredited environmental commercial laboratories duly incorporated in the State of Illinois employing less than 20 people, and one person representing the Illinois Association of Environmental Laboratories.

On July 1, 1999 the IL ELAP was granted National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) Accrediting Authority status for Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Reclamation Act testing (Certificate number 1999-08). You can view the IL ELAP's NELAP scope of accreditation (Acrobat PDF). You can also download the IL ELAP application for accreditation.

On October 25, 1999 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the list of approved Proficiency Test (PT) providers. You can view the list of approved PT providers (off-site). Laboratories accredited by the IL ELAP or seeking accreditation by the IL ELAP need to purchase PT samples from one of the providers on this list. Laboratories are required to submit (each calendar year) one round of routine PT sample results between May 1st - 31st and a second round of routine PT sample results between November 1st - 30th. The final results for each PT study must be submitted to the IL ELAP directly from the PT provider.

In February 2000 NELAC published the entire set of Proficiency Testing (PT) samples currently required under the NELAC Standards (Sections 2.0, 2.1, 2.2.1, 2.3.3.1, 2.6 and Appendix C). You can visit the NELAC web page for more information.

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