ddms' staff posses over 25 years of experience in providing quality environmental chemistry services on CERCLA and RCRA projects across the country. The staff at ddms has a thorough understanding of all phases of project coordination. Our personnel can assist to determine appropriate analytical methods to achieve the project goals, coordinate the analytical efforts with the laboratory, provide oversight or audits of field activities, track delivery of samples to the analytical laboratory, and follow the samples through the laboratory to help ensure on-time results. This benefits the project financially by placing personnel conversant in the process in a position to address routine issues.
ddms is proud to offer the following environmental chemistry consulting services.
Third-Party Data Validation and Verification Services
Whether the data receive a validation or an evaluation, professional judgment is applied as necessary and appropriate. Emphasis is placed on technical usability of the data as opposed to method compliance. Data that are method compliant may not be usable and, conversely, data that are usable may not be method compliant. ddms personnel offer years of laboratory experience and have performed data validation services for clients and sites ranging from small single-party sites to very large multi-party sites.
ddms also brings unique technological innovations to the traditional validation process through use of the Validation Update Utility in its Project Portal™ project management application, a custom application used to update the environmental database with changes made to analytical data as a result of the validation process.
EPA guidance states that data validation is to be performed by a third party with respect to the entity that performed the sampling and that which performed the analysis. For this reason, ddms is ideally suited for performing focused data validation services.
Laboratory Coordination and Oversight
Laboratory coordination and oversight is a necessary part of any environmental sampling effort. Often times, significant time and resources are required to manage the day-to-day needs of keeping up with bottle-orders, associated analyses, methods and ensuring that detection limits are meeting or exceeding the level required the prevailing environmental standards. ddms posses a solid understanding in the complexities associated with laboratory analysis oversight and excels at bringing this experience to bare on environmentally impacted sites from large to small scale.
Laboratory Audits
Laboratory chemical analysis are expensive and potentially responsible party (PRP) groups want assurances that the laboratories that will be performing forthcoming analysis are operating within their stated parameters. ddms regularly provides on-site laboratory audits on behalf of single and multi-party potentially responsible party (PRP) groups.
Field Sampling Audits and Sample Collection Oversight
Environmental projects require detailed planning and monitoring in order to attain quality data for the basis of future project phases. Sampling and analysis programs need to be well planned so that the data are representative of the site as well as completed in a cost effective and timely manner. ddms offers experience in contributing towards SAP (Sampling and Analysis Plans) and QAPP (Quality Assurance Project Plan) and Intricate environmental projects can entail complex sampling and analysis events, which may require day-to-day supervision or management of the sampling and analysis program. Comprehensive coordination of the project is essential to its success. ddms has experience in providing on-site oversight of sampling efforts including on large scale sediment sampling projects.
Electronic Data Deliverable (EDD)
Preparation and Testing
EDDs are now an essential data management tool. ddms has worked with dozens of major national laboratories to set up and vet a myriad of different EDD formats including the EPA Region formats.
Litigation Support Services
Data defensibility is paramount in an environmental litigation environment. ddms would argue that the threat of litigation is reason enough to always collect and maintain defensible data in the first place. ddms staff offer experience in providing environmental litigation services from many aspects including serving as fact witnesses and professionally qualifying the reliability of large databases on a record-by-record basis.
