DOE Analytical Services Program
(ASP)

TOOLKITS HISTORY

The Office of Corporate Safety Analysis, Office of Corporate Safety Program supports the development of environmental sampling and statistical assessment toolkits to enable field sites to acquire the optimal type, quality and quantity of data necessary for confident and defensible decisions. These toolkits provide methods widely accepted by regulatory agencies for minimizing cost and sampling requirements, while maximizing information content and confidence. Training on the systematic planning process and use of the software toolkits is also provided to Departmental field sites.

TOOLKITS BENEFITS

• Systematic planning and data quality assessment are key ingredients for confident decision making regarding environmental field sampling and assessment.

• Visual Sample Plan (VSP) is a multi-agency sponsored sampling design and statistical assessment toolkit, with originating DOE sponsorship. An interactive, user-friendly, data quality objective (DQO)-based software tool, VSP is used to determine the number and location of samples to ensure confident and statistically defensible decisions, as well as perform statistical and data quality assessment in support of the decision making process. For more information on the VSP, please refer to http://dqo.pnl.gov/vsp, or contact Brent Pulsipher, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 509-375-3989

• Development of environmental field sampling software toolkits, and associated training for DOE Federal and contractor personnel, assists DOE field identification of the nature and extent of environmental contamination, resulting in overall cleanup cost savings. Software toolkit training further enables DOE, regulatory and contractor personnel to streamline development and regulatory acceptance of optimal, cost-effective and defensible sampling and statistical analysis approaches. For more information about Software Development Toolkits and DOE Field Training, please refer to the Data Quality Objectives/Assessment, Managing Uncertainty and Systematic Planning for Environmental Decision Making at http://www.hanford.gov/dqo/dqa/dqahome.html, or contact Sebastian Tindall, (509) 845-7078.