| The 2008 Conference
on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held April 21-24, 2008
in Seattle, Washington. The 2008 conference continued a 27-year tradition
of addressing environmental issues through the exploration of advancements
in environmental quality systems management. The theme of the conference
is "Sharing Information to Spur Innovation."
| You will need the free Adobe Reader to view some of the files on
this page. See EPA's PDF
page to learn more. If you have difficulty accessing these PDF
documents, please contact the Quality Staff at 202-564-6830 or quality@epa.gov
for assistance. |
Conference Abstracts are available
here (PDF
30pp, 546 K). Available session
presentations are posted in the agenda below.
Note: The session papers and presentations accessible
via this site are posted for informational purposes only. They have not
been reviewed or endorsed by EPA management and thus do not represent an
official statement of EPA's views or policy. They are not intended to be
used to formulate or support any EPA decision or position. Posting these
materials does not indicate EPA adoption or endorsement of the information
contained therein.
Conference Agenda
Day
|
Time |
Session |
Monday
April 21 |
1:00
- 5:00 PM |
Training Courses |
Grand Ballroom C |
Grand Ballroom D |
Willow A |
Willow B |
| Data Usability
for Decision Makers (PDF
65pp., 4.1MB) Course Description |
EPA QA Managers Working
Session [Closed Session] |
Interpretation
of Environmental Statistics (PDF
51pp., 1.1MB) Course Description |
Ambient
Air Monitoring Quality System Training |
Tuesday
April 22
|
8:00 PM - 12:00
PM |
Training Courses |
Grand Ballroom C |
Grand Ballroom D |
Willow A |
Willow B |
| Data Usability for Decision
Makers (continued from Monday) |
EPA QA Managers Working Session[Closed
Session] (continued from Monday) |
Estimation and Statistical
Tests (PDF
49pp., 253K) Course Description |
Ambient Air Monitoring Quality System
Training (continued from Monday) |
1:00 - 5:00 PM |
Opening Plenary [Grand Ballroom]
- Welcome and Opening Remarks: Reggie Cheatham, Director, Quality
Staff, U.S. EPA Office of Enivronmental Information
- Barbara Metzger QA Manager of the Year Presentation
Keynote Presentation (PDF
12pp., 1.1MB) Joseph DeFeo, President,
Juran Institute
Plenary Panel Discussion "Meeting Customers' Expectations"
- Moderator: Reggie Cheatham, Director, Quality Staff, U.S. EPA
Office of Enivronmental Information
- Ronald Shafer, Policy Analyst, Quality Staff, U.S. EPA Office
of Enivronmental Information
- Eric de Place, Senior Researcher, Sightline Institute
- Dave Kircher, Manager Air Resources, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency
|
Wednesday, April 23 Agenda
Time |
General
Session [Grand Ballroom] |
8:00 - 9:30 AM |
National
Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information (PDF
6pp., 1.5MB) [Moderator - B. Nussbaum]
- M. Flynn, Director, Office of Information Analysis and
Access , U.S. EPA
- J. Schweiss, Region 10, U.S. EPA
- R. Elleman, Region 10, U.S. EPA
- H. Ferguson, Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA
- P. Oshida, Office of Water, U.S. EPA
|
Time |
Grand Ballroom C |
Grand Ballroom D |
Willow A |
Willow B |
10:00
- 11:30 AM |
Development of a Consensus Standard
for Quality Systems in Environmental Testing Laboratories (PDF
15pp., 339K) [R. DiRienzo] |
Quality Assurance of Performance
Measures (PDF 29pp., 1.4MB) [P. Mundy,
R. Shafer, J. Lieberman] |
Integrating the System of Registries
(SOR) into Your Quality Program (PDF 21pp.,
1MB) [C. Dickinson,
J. Tooley, B. Schwartz] |
Analyzing the Ozone and PM10 Data Gathered
at the Monitoring Stations Located on the US-Mexico Border (PDF
12pp., 486K) [H. Lacayo, T. Forbes] |
| Alternative Approaches
to Collecting and Interpreting Matrix Spike Data (PDF
15pp., 411K) [H. McCarty] |
Development of Quality Control Parameters
for an Ambient Air Particle Inhalation Exposure System (PDF
20pp., 2.3MB) [L. Walsh] |
| Data Verification
- It's Not Just the Laboratory (PDF 19pp.,
311K) [J.
Bennett] |
Chasing the Plume with One Analyzer,
One Engine and a Prayer (PDF 30pp., 3.4MB) [D.
Rafferty] |
12:30
- 2:00 PM |
Standardizing Data
Reporting, Review, and Storage: Examples from the Front Lines (PDF
35pp., 605K) [L. Blume, Y. Yang, B. Runyon, J. Kreuger, B. Jordan,
A. Mudambi] |
Developing an Agency Quality
Glossary (PDF 24pp., 1.5MB) [K. Breidenstine,
M. Pendleton] |
Roadmap to Quality Costs: How
to Identify, Categorize, Monitor, and Report Quality Costs for Products
and Services (PDF 14pp., 544K) [J. Worthington] |
Dynamic Evaluation of Meteorological
Parameters Using Collocated Monitoring (PDF
11pp., 405K) [M.
Plate] |
| Case Study: Metals
Matrix Metadata Mistakes Modify King County Monitoring Management (PDF
17pp., 762K) [J. Frodge] |
From Through-The-Probe to Emergency
Response (PDF 6pp., 486K) [L. Grooms] |
| A Description of the PM 2.5
Monitoring Network Performance Evaluation Program and Findings for
2005-2007 (PDF 13pp., 587K) [D. Crumpler] |
| Influencing Change through
Collaboration and Information Sharing - the British Columbia's Forest
and Range Evaluation Program (PDF
53pp., 4.7MB) [P.
Bradford, F. Barber] |
Air Toxics Through-the-Probe Audits [S. Kilmer] |
| NATTS QA System and Results
of the QA Assessment (PDF 6pp., 479K) [D.
Mikel] |
2:15
- 3:45 PM |
EPA Office of Research and
Development's Scientific Data Management Strategy (PDF
11pp., 694K) [L.Petterson] |
508 Basics for Providing Access
and the Impact on Products and Services (PDF
23pp., 631K) [A.
Babcock, S. Buchanan, K. Breidenstine] |
Ecology’s Quality
System: From databases to information sharing and decision-making (PDF
39pp., 3.2MB) [W. Kammin, C. Neumiller, C. Brown] |
* Ambient Air Monitoring Workgroup Meeting (8:00 - 9:30
AM and continuing after the technical sessions from 2:15 - 6:00 PM)
[Willow B] |
| Advantages and Challenges
of Electronic Records for Scientific Data at the US EPA (PDF
8pp., 604K) [T. Hughes] |
| Improving Laboratory
Sample Management (PDF 8pp., 615K) [M. Vazquez, M.
Binford] |
4:00
- 5:30 PM |
The Underlying Definitions for Uncertainty in Environmental
Data -
Implementing ANSI/NCSL Z540 in
an EPA Calibration Laboratory (PDF 26pp.,
1.1MB) [P.
Groff]
Uncertainty - A Laboratory Viewpoint (PDF
18pp., 450K) [R. DiRienzo]
|
Information and Data Quality Framework (PDF
19pp., 1.9MB) [J. Worthington] |
**STATs/SAS Users Group Meeting 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm [Madrona] |
| Data and Information
Quality as a Component of the Enterprise Data Architecture (PDF
10pp., 631K) [K. Kirby] |
| Conscious Data Quality
Management through Data Stewardship (PDF
17pp., 696K) [C. Dingman] |
Thursday, April 24 Agenda
Time |
Grand Ballroom C |
Grand Ballroom D |
Willow A |
Willow B |
8:00
- 9:30 AM |
Determining Correlations
and Interoperability Between TQM, ISO and IM Documents (PDF
12pp., 1.25MB) [D. Weingart Webb] |
EPA Office Water Quality Management Plan Development
- Lessons Learned [M. Hamilton, P. Oshida, B. Benroth, M. Heber, M.
Kelly, E. Liu] |
Using Web Technologies
to Spur Innovation (PDF 33pp.,
2.7MB) [M. Jones, S. Buchanan, J. Balent, K. Kirby, H. Ferguson] |
Parameters of a dose-response model are on
the boundary. What happens with BMDL? [L. Kopylev, J. Fox] |
| The Use of Geostatistics
in the Remedial Investigation of the Upper Buffalo River (PDF
22pp., 2.6MB) [J. Schofield] |
| Parameter Estimation
- Modified Delta Log-normal Approach versus Censoring Techniques (PDF
8pp., 1.1MB) [N. Andrews] |
10:00
- 11:30 AM |
Getting your input to the National Dialogue on Access
to Environmental Information. [N. Wentworth] |
eQMP: Implementing Electronic
Quality Management Plans (PDF 8pp.,
231K) [G. Johnson,
K. Hull, M. Kantz, J. Elkins] |
Chaotic, but In Control - Managing
a Flurry of Data Processing and Analysis Activities for the Total
Coliform Rule Six-Year Review (PDF 7pp.,
680K) [M.
Messner, S. Shaw] |
Principles of Survey
Management Roundtable (PDF 34pp., 796K) [B. Nussbaum,
M. Kollander, P. Mundy] |
| Practical Problems in
Remotely Sensed Image Acquisition (PDF
20pp., 3.8MB) [G. Brilis] |
| Guidance for Developing Global
Positioning System Data Collection Standard Operating Procedures
and QAPPs (PDF 12pp., 507K) [G. Brilis] |
Conference ended at 11:30
AM |
Training Course Descriptions
| Data
Usability for Decision Makers |
| |
Dates: |
Monday, April 21, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm through
Tuesday, April 22, 8:00 am-12:00 pm |
| |
Instructors: |
Advanced Systems, Inc. |
| |
Description: |
This course is intended to familiarize decision makers
with the importance of receiving a data usability report. This
report will help the decision maker understand the risk associated
with the decision and determine the defensibility or strength of making
the right decision. An overview of the processes needed to develop
and complete a data usability report will be presented. |
|
Target Audience: |
This training is designed for professionals responsible
for assisting with and making critical decisions based on environmental
data. The design of the course materials should help the data
user evaluate if their data is scientifically valid, meaningful, and
legally defensible. Personnel with past experience in environmental
decision making will benefit from this course. The information
presents state-of-the-art planning and decision making concepts as
applied to real environmental projects.
|
| |
|
|
| Interpretation
of Environmental Statistics |
| |
Date: |
Monday, April 21, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm |
| |
Instructors: |
J. Warren and B. Nussbaum, U.S. EPA |
| |
Description: |
This half-day course considers the basic interpretation
and understanding of data sets with an emphasis on the visual interpretation
of data. There are no pre-requisites for this course.
Topics Include:
- Where does data come from?
- Making the numbers talk
- What data distributions look like
- Seeing data (class exercise)
- Estimation, precision, and bias
|
| |
Target Audience: |
Environmental program personnel from state, local and
tribal governments, small business, and non-profit organzations with
an interest in learning the concepts of basic statistics. |
| |
|
|
| Estimation
and Statistical Tests |
| |
Date: |
Tuesday, April 22, 8:00 am-12:00 pm |
| |
Instructors: |
J. Warren and B. Nussbaum, U.S. EPA |
| |
Description: |
This is a half-day course on the basics of estimation
and how to use tests of hypotheses for the examination of small data
sets. There are no pre-requisites for this course.
Topics Include:
- Estimation using intervals
- Estimation and confidence interval (class exercise)
- Decision making and decision errors
- The t-test and sign test
- Decision making (class exercise)
- Difference of two means tests
|
| |
Target Audience: |
Environmental program personnel from state, local and
tribal governments, small business, and non-profit organzations with
an interest in learning the concepts of basic statistics. |
| |
|
|
| EPA
QA Managers Working Session |
| |
Dates: |
Monday, April 21, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm through Tuesday, April 22, 8:00
am-12:00 pm |
| |
Description: |
This facilitated working session is for U.S. EPA QA Managers only. |
| |
Audience: |
U.S. EPA QA Managers |
| |
| Ambient
Air Monitoring Quality System Training |
| |
Dates: |
Monday, April 21, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm through Tuesday, April 22, 8:00
am-12:00 pm |
| |
Description: |
The course will provide an overview of the EPA Quality System as
related to the quality system requirements for the ambient air monitoring
programs including SLAMS, NCore, Toxics and Speciation/IMPROVE air
monitoring. The goal is to provide the attendee with a good working
knowledge of the planning, implementation, assessment and reporting
activities related to the ambient air quality system. |
| |
Audience: |
Tribal, state and local ambient air monitoring technical and quality
assurance personnel. |
|
![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090507204900im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}