The Volunteer Monitor's Guide To Quality Assurance Project Plans

The Quality Assurance Project Plan, or QAPP, is a written document that outlines the procedures a monitoring project will use to ensure that the samples participants collect and analyze, the data they store and manage, and the reports they write are of high enough quality to meet project needs. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-funded monitoring programs must have an EPA-approved QAPP before sample collection begins. However, even programs that do not receive EPA money should consider developing a QAPP, especially if data might be used by state, federal, or local resource managers. A QAPP helps the data user and monitoring project leaders ensure that the collected data meet their needs and that the quality control steps needed to verify this are built into the project from the beginning. Volunteer monitoring programs have long recognized the importance of well-designed monitoring projects; written field, lab, and data management protocols; trained volunteers; and effective presentation of results. Relatively few programs, however, have tackled the task of preparing a comprehensive QAPP that documents these important elements. This document is designed to help volunteer program coordinators develop such a QAPP.