In support of the Water Laboratory Alliance (WLA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sponsoring an effort to improve water laboratory preparedness at the regional, state, and local levels. A key component of this effort is the WLA-RP. The Water Laboraroty Alliance - Response Plan (WLA-RP) is a document that establishes a comprehensive, national approach to laboratory response to water contamination incidents which includes preparedness, response, remediation, and recovery.
The scope of the WLA-RP is meant to be broad in order to provide processes and procedures for coordinating laboratory response to all types of water contamination events. The WLA-RP is characterized by the following:
- Applicable to all types of laboratories including federal and state laboratories, commercial laboratories, and water utility laboratories
- Can be used for smaller incidents involving a few laboratories and larger multi-regional incidents involving many laboratories
- Has many aspects such as sample tracking and data review that can also be applied to single-laboratory responses