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ELAP Updates

August 2024 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in August 2024.

March 2024 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in March 2024.

August 2023 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in August 2023.

January 2023 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in January 2023.

August 2022 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in August 2022.

May 2022 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in May 2022.

March 2022 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in March 2022.

October 2021 Lab Communication - Illinois EPA sent this document to laboratories in Illinois in October 2021.

On August 13, 2013 the Illinois Laboratory Accreditation Program implemented changes to how the program's Fields-of-Testing and Matrices are named in the Application for Accreditation and the Certificate of Accreditation. These changes will allow this program to become more consistent and compatible with other National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) Accrediting Bodies (AB). This change should be especially helpful for the Illinois EPA Primary NELAP Accredited Laboratories seeking Secondary NELAP Accreditation with another NELAP AB.

Read the complete notice:

On October 10, 2012 the Illinois Laboratory Accreditation Program implemented updates to the program's Field of Accreditation (i.e., matrix, technology/method, and analyte combinations for which the accreditation body offers accreditation). These necessary updates were due to the Clean Water Act's May 18, 2012 Final Rule (i.e., MUR II), Safe Drinking Water Act's Expedited Approvals of Alternative Test Procedures and the Office of Solid Waste's New and Revised SW-846 Methods.

Read the complete notice:

On August 1, 2011 the Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, due to staffing and resource limitations, initiated a moratorium on the primary accreditation of out-of-state laboratories. The accreditation of in-state laboratories will not be affected. The out-of-state moratorium has been implemented by taking the following specific actions:

  1. No applications or fees from out-of-state laboratories seeking initial primary accreditation will be accepted in 2011 or until the moratorium has been lifted.
  2. No renewal applications or fees for primary accreditation from any out-of-state laboratories will be accepted in 2011.

The Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program will continue to accept all applications for secondary accreditation and process those in the required time frame. 

On June 1, 2007 the IEPA updated the methods and analytes available for accreditation. Federal regulations were recently finalized approving updated methods for the analysis of wastewater samples. Additionally, the USEPA withdrew approval for some methods. The IEPA has revised our Scope of Accreditation so that approved methods are available for accreditation. As there may be some instances where a withdrawn method needs to be used (e.g., existing contracts or permits), the IEPA has not dropped the withdrawn methods. It is the responsibility of the laboratory to assure that appropriate methods are used.

The Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program expects that laboratories will update their Scopes of Accreditation (i.e., select newly approved methods) at the time of their annual accreditation renewal. If a laboratory chooses to download an application and request an update to its scope mid-year, that application will be processed in the order received after initial and annual renewal applications are processed. The thirty-day time limit for the processing of applications will not apply to mid-year requests.

On July 1, 2002 the IEPA will implement a new schedule of fees for the Illinois Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (IL ELAP). The new fee schedule will be:

Initial Application Fee

(One time fee for laboratories newly entering the program) 		$1,500.00
Annual Fees
Base Administrative Fee $2,400.00
Drinking Water Organics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00
Drinking Water Inorganics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00
Wastewater Organics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00
Wastewater Inorganics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00
Solid Waste Organics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00
Solid Waste Inorganics Accreditation Fee $1,000.00

On July 24, 2001 Governor Ryan signed into law Public Act 92-0147, establishing an Environmental Laboratory Certification Committee. The duties of the Committee are defined in the Act. In summary, the Committee's duties are to work with IEPA personnel to develop a fee schedule that will support the Agency's laboratory accreditation program. Fees become effective when the committee concurs with a fee schedule proposed by the IEPA. After reviewing the costs of operating the accreditation program and negotiations between the committee and the IEPA regarding various formats and levels of support, the IEPA proposed, and the committee concurred with the above fees.

The Director of the IEPA appoints the membership of the committee. The Act defines the membership of the committee as one person representing accredited county or municipal public water supply laboratories, one person representing the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC), one person representing accredited sanitary district or waste water treatment plant laboratories, 3 persons representing accredited environmental commercial laboratories duly incorporated in the State of Illinois and employing 20 or more people, 2 persons representing accredited environmental commercial laboratories duly incorporated in the State of Illinois employing less than 20 people, and one person representing the Illinois Association of Environmental Laboratories.

On July 1, 1999 the IL ELAP was granted National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) Accrediting Authority status for Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Reclamation Act testing (Certificate number 1999-08). You can view the IL ELAP's NELAP scope of accreditation (Acrobat PDF). You can also download the IL ELAP application for accreditation.

On October 25, 1999 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published the list of approved Proficiency Test (PT) providers. You can view the list of approved PT providers (off-site). Laboratories accredited by the IL ELAP or seeking accreditation by the IL ELAP need to purchase PT samples from one of the providers on this list. Laboratories are required to submit (each calendar year) one round of routine PT sample results between May 1st - 31st and a second round of routine PT sample results between November 1st - 30th. The final results for each PT study must be submitted to the IL ELAP directly from the PT provider.

In February 2000 NELAC published the entire set of Proficiency Testing (PT) samples currently required under the NELAC Standards (Sections 2.0, 2.1, 2.2.1, 2.3.3.1, 2.6 and Appendix C). You can visit the NELAC web page for more information.