City of Vacaville Utilities Water Quality Laboratory Earns Two-Year Certification
The City of Vacaville Utilities Water Quality Laboratory (COVWQL) recently received their renewal certification for being a certified laboratory with the State of California through the California Water Boards Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP).
ELAP certification ensures laboratories generate environmental and public health data of known, consistent, and documented quality. All labs that perform environmental testing with results being reported to the California State Water Resources Control Board are required
to be certified by ELAP. In the last few years, ELAP has added extensive regulatory requirements to obtain or renew certification. More than 200 of the 750 certified labs in California have dropped their certification. However, the COVWQL adopted the expanded requirements and certification was granted for another two years.
Certification validates that the laboratory met and continues to meet the following:
• Technical competence of staff.
• Compliance with all components of reference methods.
• Compliance with all regulatory quality assurance and quality control requirements.
• Successful completion of blind study testing.
• Successful completion of on-site laboratory audits. Laboratory certification is a means of determining
continuous and consistent compliance with adopted standards. Ultimately, Vacaville residents can have peace of mind knowing that COVWQL is qualified to produce accurate, reliable, and repeatable test data that meets or exceeds state licensing requirements.