American Council of Independent Laboratories
Environmental Sciences Section (ESS) Phone Conference
April 21, 2011
Meeting Minutes
Participants: - Judy Morgan – Chair (Environmental Science Corporation); Annie Carter (Brooks Rand Labs);
Charlie Carter (Testamerica); Zoe Grosser (Perkin Elmer); Bruce Godfrey (Curtis & Tompkins); Joe Konschnik
(Resteck); Allison Mackenzie (Edward S. Babcock); Jerry Singh (RTI Labs); David Speis (Accutest Labs);
Steve Vanderboom (Pace Analytical Services); Bob Wyeth (Pace Analytical Services); David Friedman
(Friedman Consulting); & Tony Anderson (SEO).
1.0
Call to order:
The Chair called the meeting to order at 11:03 a.m. EDT.
2.0
Introductions:
Members introduced themselves as they joined the call.
3.0
Anti Trust Statement:
The members acknowledged they had read and understood their obligations under the statement.
4.0
Review and Approval of Minutes of February 17, 2010 Teleconference meeting :Motion to accept: Mr. Wyeth
Seconded: Mr. Carter Approved unanimously.
5.0
Review of Winter Meeting March 29, 2011:The minutes for the Winter meeting were deferred to the next meeting for approval as members had not
had sufficient time to review them.
Action: Mr. Anderson to place the winter meeting minutes on the next meeting agenda.
Ms. Morgan felt the Winter meeting went very well and there was excellent participation particularly
from the EPA representatives. Since the meeting there has good feedback from the EPA people who
attended. The ORC people have already asked for some assistance on Soil X Cell technology from ESS
member labs in comparison to microwave technology, which it replaces. There was good reaction to 3rd
party accreditation, but care has to be taken not to call it privatization. Lara Autry handed out a letter at
the meeting, (attached), which states that the EPA will now require laboratories to be accredited by a
recognized organization competent to accredit. Members were pleased with this new EPA policy.
Even though not a regulatory mandate, it does EPA’s interest in laboratory accreditation and the
information will represent support for the ACIL third party initiative. Ms. Morgan stated that she had
taken some notes from the strategic planning session at the winter meeting, which she will summarize

ESS EC Minutes 04-21-11
1
and share with the section along with the action items that resulted from the discussion. The minutes for
the winter meeting are attached again.
There is progress with the New Jersey initiative and this will make moving forward to other States
easier.
Action: Mr. Anderson to FU on getting the White Paper on ACIL posted on the Web Site and ask the
Webmaster to link to the Restek web site for more information.
6.0
ELAB Report:
Mr. Speis stated that ELAB has been submitting comments regularly on methods rules but the
suggestions or recommendations submitted during comment periods receive equal weight with all other
submitted comments. Typically, comments submitted after the initial proposal have little likelihood of
influencing the process, which was underscored during recent meetings with rule sponsoring program
offices such as the Office of Water and the Office of Water Permits (Sufficiently Sensitive Methods
Rule & Methods Update Rule) that ELAB met with during the rule comment period. ELAB input has
been less effective than it could be by following this approach.
ELAB has launched an agency marketing campaign to address this situation, which is designed to
provide ELAB input to the Agency in advance of the initial rule proposal and comment period. The goal
is to employ ELAB’s advisory committee position to influence development at the beginning of the
process.
ELAB has also been following the development of the recreational water quality criteria, which is based
on a rule that requires EPA to provide rapid feedback to beach management authorities regarding beach
openings and closure.
Individual standing workgroups within ELAB have been addressing a laboratory greening initiative,
clarification of the data quality objective and measurement quality objective processes and the state of
national accreditation, which is the consensus perspective on national accreditation from ELAB’s
representative constituency.
The ESS is well represented on the ELAB board. Ms. Morgan has taken over as the chair of ELAB from
Mr. Speis, who continues to represent ACIL. Mr. Farrell represents TNI.
6.0
NEMC Planning:
Mr. Speis reported that all of the sessions are filled. The only papers from ESS to be presented in the
advocacy issues session are by Mr. Bush, Dr. Burrows and Mr. Konschnik (Restek). Mr. Speis
expressed disappointment in the participation and urged that for 2012 we need to strive for more
participation and obtain early commitments to get more ESS papers submitted. This session is a great
way to show the involvement of ACIL in the business community and the opportunity should be used by
members to showcase our expertise as well as successes.
7.0
Membership report:

ESS EC Minutes 04-21-11
2
Ms. Mackenzie reported that he had been in touch with WEF & AWWA regarding the winter meeting.
We are approaching prospects too late in the game and without good marketing materials it is difficult.
There is a need for marketing materials to help solicit new members. Additionally, we need marketing
materials relevant to upcoming events such as the winter and the annual meetings to be developed
sooner.
Action: Mr. Anderson to convey to Mr. Bush & Mr. Bright that marketing materials are needed for
membership solicitation and also to develop marketing materials for bi-annual meeting sooner.
It was suggested that we send other organizations notice of our events. NEMC is advertising now and
they could be contacted for distribution of ACIL information including inclusion in conference bags.
Action: Mr. Anderson to ask Mr. Bright to contact Jerry Parr at NEMC about possible promotion of the
annual meeting by inclusion of information with their conference materials.
Mr. Bright submitted a membership report, which was read by Mr. Anderson.
Mr. Bright’s report reminded members on the call that if they have not yet renewed their membership to
please do so as soon as they can, as we will be going through the process of lapsing anyone at the end of
this month, unless they have made special arrangements with Mr. Bright. Feel free to contact Mr.
Bright direct at (410) 869-3253 or [email protected]
With respect to new members, we are actively working several leads, but need more referrals. More
detailed information will follow on their next call.
With respect to the list serve. We are still working with the web company to allow documents to be
posted as part of the list serve. I should have more information by next week.
8.0
State Accreditation – White Paper:
A stakeholder group has been meeting as a sub-committee comprised of the people who have made
financial contributions to the lobbying third party initiative. Mr. Friedman had prepared a couple of
summaries for marketing purposes that were circulated to the lobbying firm in New Jersey that ACIL is
working with. The lobbying firm has been charged with coming up with a strategy of how to market
third party accreditation to the key government officials in New Jersey. That strategy will be presented
to ACIL in the next couple of weeks. The next state in line is Florida. Mr. Speis explained the Florida
situation and how we would offer an alternative to some initiatives, which are taking place in the state.
Mr. Bush has been looking into the key committees in the Governors association to target for further
third party initiatives in other states.
9.0
Legislative Update:No report, tabled until the next meeting.
10.0
Status of Action Items:Possible time change of teleconferences.
Action: Mr. Anderson to send out Ms. Morgan’s e-mail again.
10.0
A.O.B.

ESS EC Minutes 04-21-11
3
Ms. Morgan stated that coming out of the Winter meeting there was a need for the formation of task
groups to work on specific issues.
Action: Ms. Morgan will put together a list of issues and then seek volunteers to lead some task groups.
11.0
Next Conference Call: May 19, 2011; 11:00 a.m. EDT
12.0
Adjournment: 12:03 p.m. EDT.

ESS EC Minutes 04-21-11
4