I would like to request that the adoption of this final regulation be delayed to incorporate additional public comments to this regulation. This final regulation was developed several years ago and as such, it conflicts with current Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) policy regarding the data utilized for their biennial assessment report. The final adoption and implementation of this program will severely hamper the VA DEQ’s ability to comply with requirements of several state and federal statutes.
These comments are in regard to your proposed “Regulations Governing the Certification of Non-Commercial Environmental Laboratories [1 VAC 30 45]”.This is an excellent example of a regulation being developed in a vacuum without regard or respect for the on-going work of other professionals in the field. The net effect of requiring lab certification for all labs and organizations that supply VDEQ with data on environmental quality will be a small increase in data reliability and a large decrease in the amount of available data. In turn, this will lead to decision making that is less data driven. Is this your intent? If not, then there was a egregious lack of effort on your part to understand how the present system is working. I have been directly or indirectly supervising the Ferrum College Water Quality Lab since 1985 where we have generated a large water quality data set of sufficient reliability to be valuable to the VDEQ and to many local decision makers. The Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Monitoring Program is managed cooperatively between Ferrum College and the Smith Mountain Lake Association (SMLA) is a model program, recognized nationally. Since its inception in 1987, we have been part of the effort to get citizens involved with environmental stewardship, an effort that incorporates environmental monitoring in a larger program of environmental education and awareness. This effort is represented by the state-wide organization, Citizens for Water Quality, founded by Jay Gilliam in 1996. For more than five years we have worked closely with VDEQ on our QA/QC program and have achieved the Level III status. This achievement is important not just to Ferrum College and SMLA but to the dozens of families who take pride in their work as citizen water quality monitors. In addition to the points I have raised, the following specific points must be considered in your response to comments:
-The fees associated with this regulation will severely impact citizen monitoring programs in Virginia. Citizens monitoring programs do not have deep pockets and typically survive on shoestring budgets. Any additional expenses these groups endure will deplete limited resources.
-The public engagement process for adopting the regulation is questionable. The regulation was originally submitted in 2005. After 3 years, this regulation is now proposed for final adoption. This 3 year time period did not allow any public involvement or input to the regulation. And a result, the transparency of this process is called into question. Many affected stakeholders were not adequately notified of this upcoming action in a timely manner. There are too many unanswered questions about how this regulation will affect citizen monitoring programs in Virginia.
-There have been significant changes regarding citizen volunteer water monitoring programs since this regulation was originally proposed. The DEQ has developed a QA/QC program that defines how citizen monitoring data will be utilized by the agency. The proposed regulation does not reflect this update. This regulation creates a conflict between two state agencies.
-As written, this regulation is inconsistent with HB 1859 passed in the 2007 General Assembly. HB 1859 states, “It shall be the goal of the Department to encourage citizen water quality monitoring so that 3000 stream miles are monitored by volunteer citizens by 2010.” Additional fees associated with this regulation will result in greater citizen monitoring start up costs, increased laboratory fees, and reduced data submission to the DEQ. This is in direct conflict with the state code.
-The regulation proposes that non-commercial laboratories should meet National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) standards. However, NELAC accreditation was never designed to be applied to citizen water quality monitoring. By developing a regulation that includes citizen monitoring programs, DGS has over-reached and gone beyond the intent of NELAC.
