ERLN Regional Support
Regional Roles:
EPA's Regional Laboratories play an important role in the ERLN:
- Serve as a regional point of contact for analytical issues during responses;
- Identify, organize, and coordinate all regional laboratory assets for ERLN during a response including screening and confirmatory laboratories;
- Coordinate sample flow from an emergency event to ERLN member labs from within and outside the Region;
- Coordinate special analytical service requests to national contract labs and oversee ERLN surveillance and testing performed by member laboratories as requested to assure laboratory results;
- Coordinate national training exercises for terrorism-related events as related to analytical capability and capacity to ensure efficient sample flow to member labs; and
- Partner with regional emergency and disaster coordinators (law enforcement, FEMA, OSCs, and other emergency response organizations).
Analytical services provided by the ten regional laboratories include a full spectrum of routine and special chemical and biological testing in support of regional and national programs including:
- air,
- water,
- pesticides,
- toxics,
- hazardous waste,
- ambient monitoring,
- compliance monitoring,
- criminal and civil enforcement, and
- special projects.
Other core functions include:
- technical advice and assistance to state and local agencies concerning analytical techniques,
- methodology and quality control,
- field sampling support,
- expert witness testimony, and
- training of program staff and other organizations.