Technical Quality Assurance and Statistical Support

U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD)

Neptune has provided technical quality assurance and statistical support (including decision quality support) to EPA’s ORD Laboratories and Centers, other Program Offices, and Regions for over 20 years. We conduct document and product reviews, activity reviews, and technical quality system and statistical support to assist EPA in implementing the most current versions of EPA 2106.0, Quality Policy, and EPA 2105.0, Policy and Program Requirements, for the Mandatory Agency-Wide Quality System.

EPA documents reviewed by Neptune include numerous program-, project-, and activity-specific quality planning documents and research products (draft and final reports, conference papers, journal publications, and literature reviews). Neptune has provided general and subject-specific technical support on these reviews—spot-checking data and references, identifying data gaps, providing suggestions on how to incorporate statistical data analyses, and commenting on statistical experimental design, decision quality, quality assurance/control appropriateness, and statistical data analyses performed and discussed in product documents. Quality system implementation is verified through periodic independent audits or assessments of quality systems or technical activities.

Neptune’s technical staff work with EPA Task Leaders in project planning. This planning may be as simple as following the Performance Work Statement (PWS), or it may involve more comprehensive planning such as the development of Data Quality Objectives (DQOs) and QAPPs and supporting the technical evaluation of data using the Data Quality Assessment (DQA) process. Task Orders (TOs) issued under the current EPA ORD contract include 28 document and product reviews and activity reviews and 57 TOs in the areas of technical quality system and statistical support.