California Goes to National Accreditation for Environmental Labs

California, which oversees the nation’s largest certification program for state environmental labs, is updating rules that haven’t been touched in more than 25 years and switching to nationally-recognized standards.

The California State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously Tuesday evening to replace lab certification regulations with guidelines set by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Institute (NELAC), a nonprofit based in Newport Beach, Calif.

• California’s program has about 650 certified labs regulating testing for hazardous waste, drinking water, wastewater, pesticides, asbestos, and other contaminants. Regulations haven’t been updated since 1994.
• A 2015 report on the state Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program found ...