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The Department of Health and Human Services - Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (DHHS) adopted routine technical rule changes jointly with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to amend the Maine Comprehensive and Limited Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Rule by establishing a revised fee schedule based on the cost of certifying or accrediting laboratories, pursuant to 22 MRS §567(4). DHHS and DEP amended the rates per test method category, which increased the total biennial accreditation fee, resulting in a $200 rate increase for limited laboratory accreditation (annual or biennial) and a $50 fee for additional methods requested outside of certification. Laboratories subject to this rule will experience a fee increase ranging from 5-50%, depending on the number of methods analyzed. Additional rule changes updated citations for applicable federal regulations from 2017 to the most current year to date (2022), in accordance with 40 CFR Parts 63, 136, 141, 258, 260-261, 264-266, 268, 270-271 and 279, and to allow for the
use of the most recently EPA-approved methods-when the alternative method is approved by DHHS and DEP, after the rule is promulgated. Other changes adopted include: 1) adding a reference to. Table IA under the waste water program methods; 2) adding a definition for duplicate and field duplicate; 3) clarifying accrediting body in Section 2 subsection (A)(2)(a); 4) specifying that the written management review and management team meeting will be completed within the first quarter of each calendar year; 5) clarifying that, for the required analytical method SOP, references must include method revision number or letter and publication date; 6) requiring labs that fail a second proficiency test to notify the Maine Laboratory Accreditation Program (MLAP); 7) incorporating enterococcus in the alphabetized list of pollutants for which wastewater discharge facility labs licensed pursuant to 38 MRS §413 may analyze wastewater discharges; and 8) clarifying Section 7 to articulate that a lab may fully accredited for some methods, provisionally accredited for others, and may lose accreditation for methods, all while remaining an "accredited lab". Both Departments also adopted minor grammatical and formatting changes to improve rule clarity and readability.
Adopted
Office: Maine CDC
Routine technical
Effective date:
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