v>EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Water Laboratory Alliance
Purpose The EPA Water Laboratory
Alliance (WLA) provides the Water
Sector with an integrated nationwide net-
work of laboratories. This network offers
the capabilities and capacity to analyze
water samples in the event of natural,
intentional, or unintentional water con-
tamination involving chemical, biological,
or radiochemical contaminants. The WLA
is composed of public health, environmen-
tal, and select commercial laboratories.
The WLA focuses solely on drinking water
and wastewater and is an integral part of
EPA's Environmental Response Laboratory
Network (ERLN).
Benefits Participating in the WLA includes many
benefits, such as improved laboratory preparedness for
response to emergency situations; improved communi-
cations with peer laboratories to help address emerging
analytical, laboratory security, or laboratory operation
challenges; and access to validated methods for unreg-
ulated contaminants of interest to the Water Sector. In
addition, WLA members have access to water security-
related training opportunities, analytical support to ad-
dress analyses not conducted by their laboratory, and
standardized analytical methods.
WLA Development The WLA leverages
existing laboratory network capability, capacity, and
infrastructure and is designed to fill gaps in national
laboratory preparedness for water analyses. Prior to its
launch in the Fall of 2009, EPA and its partners devel-
oped 11 laboratory response plans, one plan for each
of the 10 EPA Regions and a separate plan for Hawaii.
These plans, which were tested using functional exer-
cises, provided the basis for development of the WLA-
Response Plan (WLA-RP). The WLA-RP serves as the
foundation document for the WLA program.
Ongoing WLA activities include:
Ultrafiltration Quality Control (QC)
Criteria Development Project.
The WLA currently relies on the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) Laboratory Response Network
(LRN) for concentration and analysis of
select agents and toxins from large vol-
umes (10-100 liters) of drinking water us-
ing the LRN Filter Concentration for the
Detection of Bioterrorism Threat Agents
in Potable Water Samples protocol. EPA
and CDC are developing Quality Control
(QC) criteria for the ultrafiltration portion
of this LRN protocol. Once implemented,
these QC criteria will allow LRN labora-
tories to confirm acceptable ultrafiltration
performance and maintain ultrafiltration
proficiency between rounds of the CDC
Proficiency Testing (PT) program. The QC
Criteria Development study is also en-
hancing laboratory capacity and capability
for select agent water analyses by improv-
ing ultrafiltration proficiency at more than
a dozen LRN laboratories. This increased
capacity and capability helps ensure the
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Office of Water (4608-T) | EPA 817-F-09-006 | October 2009 | www.epa.gov/safewater
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Water Laboratory Alliance
Water Laboratory Alliance
Response Plan (WLA-RP)
The WLA-RP establishes a comprehensive, national
laboratory response approach to water contamina-
tion events including preparedness, response, re-
mediation, and recovery. Specifically, the WLA-RP
addresses incidents that, due to their suspected cause
or size, may require additional analytical support
and a broader response than a typical utility, state, or
federal laboratory alone can provide. The WLA-RP
provides laboratories with a structure for a system-
atic, coordinated response to a water contamination
incident that can be used in conjunction with ex-
isting Incident Command System (ICS) structures
and procedures. In addition, key principles of the
WLA-RP can be applied to responses that only in-
volve a single laboratory.
Training and Full Scale
Exercises (FSEs) In an effort to support
Water Sector preparedness, the WLA provides train-
ing opportunities (e.g., Laboratory Chain of Custody
and Evidence Preservation) and conducts exercises to
support laboratory preparedness on an ongoing basis.
FSEs are being conducted to test integration of the
WLA-RP with the National Incident Management
System, as well as other federal network emergency
response procedures and to provide opportunities to
practice multi-regional coordination during large-
scale incidents. These FSEs include participants from
EPA Regions, CDC, the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion (FBI), state public health and state environmental
laboratories, drinking water utilities, law enforce-
ment, and federal, state, and local first responders.
These multi-regional exercises allow participants to
practice procedures related to providing support to
an environmental and public health incident that in-
cludes actual sample analyses, communication, coor-
dination, and data reporting.
Current WLA Activities continued from front
Water Sector's ability to respond to potential
drinking water contamination events.
Chemical Method Development
and Validation.
EPA is continuing its chemical method de-
velopment and validation efforts in support
of WLA. Evaluation of a liquid chromatog-
raphy-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) protocol
has been initiated in collaboration with the
EPA Region 5 Laboratory to develop a direct
injection rapid screening method for several
unregulated contaminants of interest to the
Water Sector. EPA efforts provide laborato-
ries with a way to analyze drinking water for
hazardous chemicals that would have the
potential for major public health impacts
or infrastructure damage to water utilities.
Also, since EPA is adapting methods that
are already being used in drinking water
laboratories (e.g., utility laboratories, State
laboratories, EPA Regional laboratories),
there is minimal cost burden associated
with monitoring these additional unregu-
lated contaminants, if desired.
Home Base for Environmental
Laboratories.
I EPA has funded a cooperative agreement
with the Association of Public Health Labo-
ratories (APHL) to develop a "Home Base"
for environmental laboratories and to dis-
seminate educational programs and tools.
This Home Base provides a platform for
laboratories, and State and Federal agen-
cies to exchange information. As a result,
environmental laboratories have a voice in
the development and implementation of the
WLA and also have an increased awareness
of water security issues.
CONTACT US: For additional information on the Water Laboratory Alliance, please contact
WLA@epa.gov or see http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/wla.cfm.
Office of Water (4608-T) | EPA 817-F-09-006 | October 2009 | www.epa.gov/safewater
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