At the Nov. 20 meeting Christine Sotelo, program manager for California’s Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP), summarized ELAP’s responsibilities and how the program supports emergency drinking‑water testing.

ELAP inspects laboratories for a documented quality system, certified staff, working equipment, method capability and defensible reporting. The program issues accreditation certificates for laboratories that provide regulatory testing used in permits, enforcement and public‑health decisions; ELAP does not accredit research‑only methods unless a state regulatory program requests and validates a method for regulatory use. "We regulate environmental laboratories in California," Sotelo said. "We have a population of about 500 laboratories in California and outside of California that we issue certificates of accreditation."

Sotelo described ELAP’s emergency role: geo‑locating labs relative to fire impacts, contacting labs about operational disruptions, coordinating subcontracting alternatives for overloaded or disrupted labs, and tracking lab impacts through the State Water Board emergency management channels. ELAP helps identify which accredited labs have capacity to accept large volumes of post‑fire VOC samples and supports communication with lab networks such as the Environmental Response Laboratory Network (ERLN) and regional laboratory resources.

On enforcement and transparency, Sotelo noted ELAP posts enforcement actions on its enforcement page and encouraged agencies and buyers of lab services to use that public record when assessing subcontracting options. Council members asked how often ELAP must develop new regulatory methods. Sotelo said most method requests (~90%) map to established, validated procedures; roughly 10% require additional validation work and coordination with the requesting program. She noted onboarding a newly adopted method can take time because laboratories must acquire capability and correct any deficiencies identified during assessments.

The practical takeaway for council members: emergency sampling for post‑fire VOCs should use ELAP‑accredited labs; statewide lab capacity is substantial but finite, and coordination among DDW, ELAP and mutual‑aid resources is critical during high‑sampling incidents. ELAP enforcement records and coordination with DDW help agencies identify trustworthy labs and plan surge testing.