Friday, March 13, 2009


3/13/2009

As it is Friday the 13th (for the second month in a row) I thought it would be appropriate to have a safety-themed post. Click on this link to see Lab Manager Magazine's latest articles about MSDS's.


Still have some time? Then guess what this picture is of. And DON'T FORGET the ORELAP/OELA Workshop in Salem on May 15!!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Senate bill 737: Field of Dreams?

Senate Bill 737, passed by the 2007 Legislature, requires the State to compile a list of Toxic Chemicals that are Persistent and/or Bioaccumulative. The Proposed “Priority Persistent Pollutant” List contains 175 chemicals which can be found on the DEQ website: http://www.deq.state.or.us/wq/SB737

By July 2011, Oregon's 52 largest wastewater treatment plants will have to develop plans to reduce pollutants measured above either the new state thresholds or existing drinking water standards. Those plans, paid for through sewer rates, are likely to include public education efforts and funding for specific pollution reduction programs.

Please note that this list is IN ADDITION TO the 122 EPA Priority Pollutants for which wastewater treatment plants already must test!

Further, in a Field of Dreams strategy (“build it and they will come”) the proposed List does not yet include any analytical methods. There is an advisory committee that is researching methods, but I haven’t seen anything published yet, so at this point there is no way to estimate the cost of this monitoring for treatment plants.

What does this List mean to Oregon environmental labs? Take a look at it and decide for yourself. We are going to hear a lot more about it in the coming months.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The new OELAONLINE website went live today! A special thanks goes to Erin Sherman (and her teacher Mr. Doug Adkins) of Sprague High School who created our new webpages. I hope to hear comments pro and con about how you like it.

This "OELA Ramblings" column is designed to give us a way of quickly posting news of interest to the Oregon environmental lab community.

The first bit of news for this year is the announcement of our annual OELA/ORELAP Workshop, Friday, May 15, 2009 at the Black Bear Inn in Salem. We will soon have the program and registration brochure posted in the "Events" section of OELAonline. This year's program will feature several presentations by Marlene Moore of Advanced Systems Inc. which will give us a greater understanding of what it takes to be a NELAC accredited laboratory.