Summary of federal quality assurance programs related to marine pollution

The importance of quality assurance (QA) for measurements made as part of marine pollution research and monitoring projects was recognized in the first Federal Plan for Ocean Pollution Research, Development, and Monitoring in 1979. In 1983 an interagency working group was formed to develop a means of improving the quality assurance programs and interagency quality assurance efforts of the Federal agencies and departments performing marine measurements. This report is in support of the efforts of this group - the Interagency Working Group on Quality Assurance - to review the present status of quality assurance within the agencies and departments of the Committee on Ocean Pollution Research, Development, and Monitoring (COPRDM).