Discharge Monitoring Report-Quality
Assurance (DMR-QA) participation is mandatory for major and
selected minor permit holders under the Clean Water Act's National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Section 308. The
DMR-QA study is designed to evaluate the entire process used by
permittees to routinely report monitoring results in Discharge
Monitoring Reports (DMRs). The study addresses the analytic ability
of the laboratories that perform chemical, microbiological and
whole effluent toxicity (WET) analyses required in the NPDES
permits and the ability to properly report these results in the
DMRs. Under DMR-QA, the permit holder is responsible for obtaining
un-graded results of analyses of test samples performed by in-house
and/or contract laboratories, and submitting these results to the
appropriate federal or state NPDES regulatory authority and the
commercial proficiency testing (PT) provider that supplies the test
samples. Permit holders are responsible for submitting corrective
action reports to the appropriate regulatory authority.
There is a decrease of 5,150
hours in the total estimated respondent burden compared with the
ICR currently approved by OMB. This decrease in burden hours can be
attributed to a number of states obtaining full or partial waivers
from this activity through agreements with the EPA. Labor costs
were revised upward to take into account employee benefit
compensation costs and inflation. Non-labor costs for obtaining
proficiency test samples increased because of an update to the list
of most commonly used analytes, and due to inflation.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.