Virginia Law

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Analyst" means a chemist, microbiologist, physicist, or technician who actually performs a test. The analyst may carry out the complete test or participate jointly with other analysts.

"Certification officer" means a DCLS employee who has the responsibility for evaluating drinking water laboratories for certification.

"Contaminant" means any objectionable or hazardous physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water. Contaminants are the analytes for which drinking water laboratories test in the drinking water samples they analyze.

"Corrective action" means the action taken to eliminate the causes of an existing nonconformity, defect, or other undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence.

"DCLS" means the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services of the Department of General Services.

"Drinking water laboratory" or "laboratory" means a laboratory that performs analyses to demonstrate compliance with primary or secondary maximum contaminant levels or action levels or any combination of these specified in 12VAC5-590.

"EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

"Findings" means factual, objective statements that provide evidence of deficiencies in meeting the requirements of this chapter.

"Laboratory director" or "laboratory supervisor" means the person who directs the operation of the drinking water laboratory on a day-to-day basis.

"Manual" means the EPA Office of Water, Manual for the Certification of Laboratories Analyzing Drinking Water: Criteria and Procedures Quality Assurance, Fifth Edition, EPA 815-R-05-004 (January 2005).

"Manual Supplement" means the EPA Office of Water, Supplement 1 to the Fifth Edition of the Manual for the Certification of Laboratories Analyzing Drinking Water, EPA 815-F-08-006 (June 2008).

"Maximum contaminant level" or "MCL" means the maximum permissible level of a contaminant in pure water that is delivered to any user of a waterworks. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology. Maximum contaminant levels may be either "primary" (PMCL), meaning based on health considerations, or "secondary" (SMCL), meaning based on aesthetic considerations.

"Maximum contaminant level goal" or "MCLG" means the level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.

"National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program" or "NELAP" means the national program to establish and implement a program for the accreditation of environmental laboratories. NELAP relies on consensus standards representing the best professional practices in the industry to establish the requirements for this program, which is then implemented by state agencies recognized by the NELAC Institute (TNI) as accreditation bodies.

"Owner" means any person who owns, operates, leases, or controls a drinking water laboratory.

"Persistent" means to continue an activity without change in spite of opposition or warning.

"Private laboratory" means a laboratory that is, or is part of, a commercial entity.

"Proficiency testing sample" or "PT sample" means a sample, the composition of which is unknown to both the analyst and the laboratory. The PT sample tests whether the analyst or laboratory or both can produce analytical results within specified acceptance criteria.

"Public laboratory" means a laboratory that is, or is part of, a local, state, or U.S. governmental agency.

"Pure water" means water fit for human consumption and domestic use that is sanitary and normally free of minerals, organic substances, and toxic agents in excess of reasonable amounts for domestic usage in the area served and normally adequate in quantity and quality for the minimum health requirements of the persons served (see Article 2 (§ 32.1-167 et seq.) of Chapter 6 of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia).

"Quality assurance" means an integrated system of management activities involving planning, quality control, quality assessment, reporting, and quality improvement to ensure that a product or service meets defined standards of quality with a stated level of confidence.

"Quality assurance plan" or "QA plan" means a comprehensive plan detailing the aspects of quality assurance needed to adequately fulfill the data needs of a program.

"Quality control" means:

1. The overall system of technical activities whose purpose is to measure and control the quality of a product or service so that it meets the needs of the users.

2. The operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality.

"SDWA" means the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 USC § 300f et seq.).

"VDH-ODW" means the Virginia Department of Health - Office of Drinking Water.