Christy Abbas (00:02):

Hello everyone, and welcome to our webinar today, DMR-QA Reporting - An eDATA Refresher. The presenter today is Brian Stringer and I am Christy Abbas and I will be your moderator. Before we get into the webinar, I'd like to go over a few housekeeping details and this is the council page that you see in front of you. The center panel is the slides that Brian will be going over. On the left-hand side, we've got the box that is used for chat, so if you have a question that you'd like to have answered during our live Q&A, please go ahead and type that in during the webinar. Below that chat box is the resource section and those are resources for you to use to help you with the DMR-QA process. There on the right-hand side, we've got Brian's information and bio, and then below that we've got our survey and we really would appreciate if you fill out the survey, take a couple seconds after the webinar to fill that out. That helps us in future webinars to provide the information that you are interested in.

 

(01:16):

Our webinar today is an eDATA Refresher, and this is talking about reporting DMR-QA results successfully. So you've completed your analysis for DMR-QA, and now you need to report your results. The task may seem daunting, but rest assured it is not, and Brian will walk us through that. This webinar will cover reporting of DMR-QA study results for NPDES permittees, the role of contract labs, final graded reports and EPA forms. The presentation will focus on logging into and entering study results into eDATA, avoiding common reporting errors, releasing results to NPDES permittees, and corrective action. The goal of this webinar is to provide you with a better understanding of how to report results to help make the reporting process less complicated. And your speaker today is Brian Stringer. Brian is our proficiency testing technical specialist at ERA and he has over 30 years of experience with environmental chemistry labs and proficiency testing. Currently, Brian is focused on evaluating participant results and helping labs meet regulatory requirements for domestic and international PT program. And with that, I turn the floor over to Brian.

 

Brian Stringer (02:45):

Thanks, Christy. Well, our goal today is simply to help you successfully complete the DMR-QA study. Of course, there's a lot to cover, so let's start by looking at the key dates from EPA's announcement letter, July 19th coming up soon. Send in that address verification form. August 30th, study 44 ends, that's the deadline to link results to permit numbers. September 27th, look for your graded reports and if you had any not acceptable results, we can help you with troubleshooting, ordering QCs and retest studies. Permittees, by October 25th, you need to send signed copies of the EPA forms and checklists onto your state coordinator and we'll include copies of those forms and the reports we send you. Lastly, December 6th, that's the deadline to submit corrective action reports to your state coordinator along with graded results for any retest results that were required.

 

(03:49):

As you may know, the EPA allows the use of WP studies or water pollution studies to meet DMR-QA requirements. Just be aware they have their own closed dates, but one nice thing about the WP studies is you get a graded report within two business days. This year, these seven studies are valid for DMR-QA. Okay, let's move on to the actual PT studies. Unfortunately, we all too often see a lab fail their PT simply due to a calculation or reporting error, and we want to help you avoid this and get the acceptable evaluations you've earned. First, please read both the instructions for the study and the specific instructions for each sample. You'll see storage requirements, dilution instructions, and reporting information. Next, always review the data reporting forms before starting your analysis. Here you'll find concentration ranges, which are the manufacturing ranges for each analyte, and this can help you guide your calibrations or make any dilutions. Also, please note the units for each analyte such as milligrams per liter or micrograms per liter. This is actually really important because they might be different than what your lab uses for your routine samples.

 

(05:13):

Lastly, there can be several analytes available in the samples you received, but you only need to report results that are for tests you run at your in-house lab, not run by a contract lab or on your NPDES permit and are on the DMR-QA checklists. You don't have to run every analyte in our samples. Those are just options. Next, be sure to report results for the correct analyte on the data reporting forms or on the eDATA website. This is actually a really common reporting error for some tests. For example, the demand sample, making sure it's BOD or CBOD. The solids, is it TSS, TDS or TS and wastewater coliforms, do you need total, fecal or E. coli?

 

(06:09):

And then you note the options for membrane filtration versus MPN multiple well or MPN multiple tube. We always just say take a look when you're reporting them and review the data entry summary. Also, be sure to report results from the PT standards and not from any QC samples you ordered. Labels for PTs always have a green edge and DMR-QA44 or the WP study number on them. Labels for QC samples have a blue edge, the name QC and the lot number will match certificates of analysis you received with your samples. And lastly, be sure to report results on time. It's a shame to get the right results only to miss the reporting deadline.

 

(06:57):

Okay, now you're ready to actually report your test results. First, go to our main website and click the blue eDATA login link in the upper right hand corner. Then select the blue eDATA login button in the middle of the page. If you have a username, enter it now then enter your password and select login. If you don't remember your password, you can use the create reset password over on the right, and that'll send you an email with a link to follow to reset your password. If you don't remember your username, you may try your ERA customer number or NBDS permit number and then your password. And honestly, if you simply can't get logged in, give us a call, we'll be glad to help.

 

(07:43):

And of course, when you do get logged in, you can update the list of folks who have access to your eDATA account. Just go to your custom number in the upper right, select customer information and then contacts. You'll now see this page, which shows the contacts we have on file for your facility. You can delete anyone who no longer needs to access eDATA, and if your lab, the primary lab contact you'll see will receive study notifications, data entry summaries, and the graded WP study reports. You need to have one primary lab contact on the account. The primary permittee contact will receive the final DMR-QA report. As you can see, this could be the same person or two different folks. If you don't see anything under roll, just hit the blue edit pencil. You can enter a username for that person, not the customer number, since this is really for your credentials only, and we don't recommend using your full email address since those tend to change over time.

 

(08:51):

Next, you select a permission level. Administrators, they can enter data view reports, but also administer this contact list, and you can have as many administrators as you want, but you should have at least one. The data entry permission level, you can still enter results and view reports, which is simply not change any contact information. After selecting Save, you receive an email, follow the link, create a password, and passwords can be anything you want. You can make them as complicated or as easy as you wish, and you can change them down the road. If you don't receive an email within a few minutes, please go to the customer number in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, select log out, and then the Create Reset password function on the right, it'll kind of trigger that email a second time. And again, if you have any trouble, just give us a ring.

 

(09:52):

Now, onto the actual data entry. This is simply the homepage of eDATA. You'll find it by selecting the green eDATA logo anytime you're on the site. Now, you just look for your study could be the DMR-QA 44, could be a WP study, and you hit that green start button to enter your results. That will take you to this screen. We recommend just quickly reading the pop-up statement and answering okay. The step is named, enter our mailing address, and it's really just for verifying that address and the contact we have here. One important note, this is what we call the lab contact. This person would receive any laboratory reports for a WP study, a quick response, but it's not necessarily who will receive the permittee report, unless of course the lab contact is the same as the permittee contact. And we'll look at the permittee results and reports a little bit later on what we call the DMR-QA tab. But for now, you'll look it over and select the green Save and Continue button. You'll notice-

 

Brian Stringer (11:03):

And select the green save and continue button. You'll notice there's lots of green save buttons on this eData website. After saving, you can see the first step, enter mailing address is now green and includes a check mark. Indicates the step is complete, we're on our way. Next step is step two, select agencies and third parties. There's a little pop-up statement. It's a good one to read. It essentially says that only a few states will accept the DMR-QA study itself for lab accreditation, state lab certification. If you do hold state accreditation and your state is listed on the screen or you find them in the add more agency search, you can check the box and your state will receive the DMR-QA results. However, most facilities are only running the study to meet DMR-QA requirements. You can just check the box for reporting to DMR-QA coordinator only.

 

(12:05):

It's really the most common thing and if you're using a WP study and you're only using it to meet DMR-QA requirements, you simply check a box says no agencies required. This can be a little confusing, so I'll list the options here and kind of repeat. The key takeaway is that only a few states allow a lab to use the DMR-QA study itself for state certification. If you don't see them in your list and you don't really have state certification, you don't need to worry about it. If you want to use the studies for DMR-QA purposes only, you're going to select the nice little box, DMR-QA coordinator only. We'll send you results to your coordinator after you've released them to the permit and you just hit save and continue and you move on. If you have any questions on any part of this while you're doing it, please call. We'll be glad to help as always.

 

(13:07):

We're now on to step three, also known as enrolled standards list. It simply shows all the products you ordered for the study and there's a little black circle with the X, which indicates no results have been entered for that standard. We'll try to cover a few key points of the data entry, but if you need help, if you're new to the process, don't hesitate. Give us a call and for now I'm going to pick one of these. We'll pick pH and just click right on it, and that takes us right into the data entry screen for pH. The layout of this page looks very similar for a lot of products that have only one analyte. You'll notice there is a slightly different layout for some of the other products we have that have multiple choices. Something like the mineral sample, the nutrient sample, but for pH, nice and simple, you ignore that method title box up at the top where it says method one and just go to that empty box labeled method.

 

(14:14):

If I click right in that empty box, it pulls down this list. You want to look for your method in the dropdown list. You can scroll, you can even type a few letters to kind of narrow down that search. You'll notice something interesting for the standard methods or as they're labeled just SM on the site. They're listed two different ways such as SM 4500-H+ B-2011.

 

(14:43):

Some states want to see it that way. It'll populate the revision edition box next to it with the year 2011. You'll notice that there's a space in between SM and 4500. That space isn't really important. It's just simply so our site will kind of organize. It'll list all of the ones with a year together, and then right below that is the same method except no space, so it gets to be down at the bottom of the list and you pick that one and it won't put the year right next to the method. It'll instead give you a little dropdown list next to it in the revision edition box, and that's how you can pick the edition of the book. Could be 18th, 19th edition, 22nd edition, et cetera. We don't mean over complicate it, I guess I would say, but there are states and municipalities, agencies, they want to see different ways of looking almost at the same method. The EPA methods are a little more straightforward. ASTM methods, same thing, but call us if you have questions as usual.

 

(15:58):

One other thing about the methods while we're on it, if your method is not in the list or you're not sure if you're supposed to report some kind of an official method, you can reach out to your coordinator. You do have a choice. You can enter anything you want in that box. It could be referenced to the meter you're using or truly it's up to you and your state coordinator. If you do type something in the box, the system will bulk. It'll not save it unless there's a NELAC code because that's required for some of the commercial laboratories and some of the large municipalities, but if you check the little box, say on the top line here, it's right above the method and it says, check if NELAC code's not required. And for some of the other tests, again, the BODs, the various standards where the layout is slightly different, you put the method in and then that NELAC code opt out is the box you check. Either one of those lets you move on.

 

(17:00):

It lets you save by typing anything you want in that method box, and then you check the little box saying, I know I don't have an NELAC code and I don't need one. Next up is the analysis date. Little over to the right of the method, you just simply click in the box. There's a little drop-down calendar. You pick the day you read the test, and finally the reason you're here, look at the datapoint field and enter your result from your test. We don't recommend you check under the name sign because that's a less than sign unless you actually were not able to detect the analyte in the sample. And like we talked before, this is a really good time to just look it over, double check the units, look at those manufacturing concentration ranges, just see if everything makes sense. You select save, it'll give you a little pop-up question and you say, yes, I do want to go to the list of standards. You can see pH is now green. It's got a check mark showing results were entered and saved. The step three, enter and submit data is also green. The little number three has gone away. It's got a little check mark showing at least one result has been entered for the study. You'll notice the next little green or the little button is green. It always starts that way and has a little dash because it's optional. We don't want to make it gray and have you have to complete it because most labs don't have to worry about it. It's only if you're customizing what your state agencies get.

 

(18:39):

You can now stop any time, finish your data entry later or you can keep going. To continue, just select the next standard. Pick whichever one you want, enter results and save. You continue really until all your results are entered and everything has a green check mark. Okay, we're doing great. You've entered your results. The next step is to link it all to your NPDES permit numbers. Permittees performing in-house testing will see a bright red button. It's labeled release data to your permit. If the results are for your in-house permit only, just one permit and you want all of the results to go to your coordinator, hit the red button. That's honestly it. It links as it says, your data to your permit and the nice little step five NPDES permitting reporting goes from gray to green. It's got a check mark. You don't even have to go to that step.

 

(19:41):

One thing I always want to point out though is that red release data to your permit button stays there. It's always red. Stays on the screen. We don't want to have it go away in case you realize you need to come back and do this again, make a change and re-release. So we don't want to have it go away, but don't worry about the fact that it stays there. You're actually done. If you want to view the study summary, you click that button, look it over. It's now got your permit number on it. It's a great document for your records. The catch to this is if you are doing work for more than one permit, a couple of plants down the road, or you don't want all your test results to go to your coordinator, maybe you do a little test in-house that is just for tracking purposes, but it's not on the official permit. You do want to go to step five, just a little more work to get it done instead of the quick button, but it'll be really important to do it right.

 

(20:41):

Here's that screen for step five. You can ignore the button that says, I do not wish to use this data for DMR-QA. It's only used in the rare case that someone's using DMR-QA for an in-house purpose and they want to click that and they don't want it to go to any agencies. You'll want to look over on the left-hand side and you see little step one and depending on your requirements, you may be able to take care of everything in that step or I'll show you how you proceed through step two and three to the right. If you have any permits that you have released data to in past years, I think it's only the last year or two, so if it's maybe been three years, a little longer than that, they may not appear there, but any recent ones are always going to start out by showing over on the left and it'll say, needs attention.

 

(21:37):

For any new permits or any that you don't see, use that blue add button. You can type in the permit number and hit the add. You can search for an email for the contact. I think it lets you, you can search for the city, the name of the facility. Once you find them, you just simply add them to your list. If you don't see one, if you don't find one there, we just don't have it in our database yet. Just send us a quick...

 

Brian Stringer (22:03):

... there. We just don't have it in our database yet. Just send us a quick little email if there's a bunch of them or if you can want to just call for one of them, tell us what the facility name is, the permit number, the mailing address. We of course have to have a contact who's the certifying official to get the report. We'll add them to our database and they'll be ready for you to go. Assuming you have all your permits listed there, you're going to use those little check boxes and the blue buttons down at the bottom to complete the process.

 

(22:35):

So one option is if you want to, we call it, release all of the results from your DMR-QA study or your WP study. You want to release all those results to a permit. You check the little box to the left of the permit. You click the blue link, all analytes to selected permittees button. You kind of glance back up and make sure the box is still checked, and then you do the second thing of release selected permittees, check that little blue button. I've got them both circled in red. Once you do that, you're done for that permit, and you can do this for a whole bunch of permits at once if you want, and it'll have a nice little green released instead of that needs attention. You can see over on the right what that looks like. Again, nice and simple. Couple of buttons, couple of check boxes. This is if you want all of your test results to go to the coordinator for all of these permits.

 

(23:36):

The other option is if you don't want all of your test results to go to the permits. Sometimes you have a one permit that has multiple tests. Sometimes another permit only has one or two that you're doing the work for. This is pretty straightforward too. It just takes a minute to figure out what happens on the page. This one, you don't use the little checkbox next to the permit. You just click on it, click right on the permit number or the permit name, and it moves over to the middle. Step two shows all your tests. You pick them. You can use the little select all, you can do the little checkbox next to demand for all of the demand, but not anything else, or you just check which one you want.

 

(24:19):

Then you look at the blue buttons in the middle because you're working under step two, selecting the analytes, and you click save and continue. It changes it to a nice little analyte selected status, and you click add permittee to step three. Okay. You'll now see the permit is listed over on the right under step three. You just check the little box next to the permit and hit that blue release results to permittee button.

 

(24:51):

Want to note one thing. If you're an in-house lab and you have that red release data to your permit button, you don't want to check that here. It will do exactly as we talked about. It releases all of your test results just to the one permit, and you're doing this set of steps to be a little more selective. So you check the box and hit the blue release results to permitee button, the status changes to a nice green released, and then you move back over to step one on the left, pick the next permit, select the tests and release them. Okay, we're doing great. We've entered results, we've released the data to the permits, you actually are done. But I recommend you get a confirmation of that. Come back to the third little circle, the little green one with a check mark on your screen. It's always going to say, enter and submit data. I have a slightly different view because I'm going to verify data in my job, so it says enter and verify data. But click that third little button. It's the enrolled standards list that you were at before, and use the green buttons. Email study summary sends an email to whoever's in step one. View study summary, you can print it out or you can save it as a PDF file. You truly are done. You can log out. You're good to go for this year's study.

 

(26:21):

Now, that said, there are a few other things to talk about with the DMR-QA program. One of them is the role of the contract labs permittees. You notify your contract lab of your DMR-QA requirements using the checklists in the EPA announcement letter, contract labs, order a PT study, perform the analysis, report your results, and release them through our system to the MPDS permit numbers for your customers. Really, you're using the same process we just covered. It's very important that all results are linked to permits by the close of Study 44, August 30th. Permittees can actually check the status of the contract labs, we'll look at that on the following slide. And lastly, corrective action for contract labs are covered in a few minutes.

 

(27:15):

So permittees can log into eDATA, hover on DMR-QA at the top menu bar and select review DMR-QA data. We'd like you to simply look this over, make sure the mailing address, the primary contact information is still correct. You can make changes right here on the screen to that person's listing. You can also select a different person from the drop down menu, but if you want to add a new contact for the permit, go up to the upper right hand corner, look for your customer number, you hover over that and select customer information, there you'll see the contact section. If you do make any changes, you select save and continue right here on this screen. Otherwise, just hit the green continue button.

 

(28:01):

Next up, you'll see the status of all of the labs who have released data to your permit. You can look at the analytes that they've released to you under review analytes, and you can actually make changes, you can uncheck any of them by August 30th. If you do end up with extra tests, I'll word it that way, on your permitting report, you can just use the analyte checklists. That's your way to indicate to your coordinator which of these tests are really required for your permit.

 

(28:33):

And lastly, we're going to send final reports on September 27th. This screen will have two new green buttons. One of them, generate report. That's simply a copy of your permitting data report form and the checklists. The permitting final report will be the complete report with also the permitting data reporting forms and the analyte checklist. September 27th, ERA will send the graded reports to the contract labs, permittees, and state coordinators. As I mentioned, the permitting reports include copies of those EPA forms, the data report form and the analyte checklists, and there'll be a copy for each laboratory. The permittees job then is to fill out those forms and send them on to your state coordinators by the October 25th deadline.

 

(29:27):

And lastly, we hope you don't need any corrective action, unfortunately things happen, but all is not lost and will help you with this part too. If your contract lab uses ERA and receives not acceptable results, we'll include corrective action information in your DMR-QA permitting report, as well as the report we send to the contract lab. If you're an in-house lab and you receive any not acceptable results, we'll include some information about that too along with an order form. If we believe that a retest is required in your state, a retest might involve a WP study, a quick response PT study, or even a QC sample, and we'll help you order the right one to meet your corrective action requirements. We also offer QC samples or certified reference materials that it can be a real help with your investigation, any troubleshooting you're doing. And lastly, permittees are to submit a corrective action report, including any retest results to your state coordinator by December 6th, that's the last deadline of the DMR-QA Study 44.

 

(30:42):

Well, that's really all I have for today. Please know that we have a variety of resources available on our website. We have analysis tips, we have webinars, we have planning guides, even the order form if you need to get started on the study. We also have expert personnel here in the building that can provide technical support for your analysis. We can help you reporting your results and even navigating the DMR-QA process. Got a few phone numbers here, some email addresses for you to reach out. I want to say thank you for spending the time with us, taking the time to learn about the DMR-QA process. And again, we want to help you succeed, we want to help you get it right. Let us know how we can do that.