The Missouri Department of Natural Resources collects, stores, processes, produces and uses a variety of environmental data and other natural resource data to help protect, preserve and enhance Missouri’s natural, mineral and cultural resources. The department is committed to ensuring the information we collect, store, process, produce or use to make environmental decisions is of a type and quality that is adequate to meet project objectives and support department decisions. Specifically, quality assurance steps and procedures are included throughout the entire data collection and analysis process, from initial planning through data usage, to produce scientifically valid and legally defensible data of known and documented quality and accuracy.
Quality Management Plan
The department's Quality Management Plan provides the overall framework for guiding the department in producing and obtaining quality data. The plan describes the management goals, policies, objectives, principals, organizational authority, responsibilities, accountability and implementation activities for ensuring environmental and other natural resource data is of known and documented quality and origin. The plan covers all intramural and extramural monitoring and measurement activities. Intramural activities include work performed by the department for its own use. Extramural activities include work performed by contractors, consultants and, in some cases, the regulated community, which is reviewed and used by the department.
The department applies the Quality Management Plan to all program activities, including activities not supported by federal funds. The plan was prepared according to EPA Requirements for Quality Management Plans (QA/R-2) and reviewed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Quality Assurance Project Plan
The department's Quality Management Plan is implemented on a project- or activity-specific basis through quality assurance project plans (QAPPs).The department's Quality Management Plan requires that any subgrantees, contractors or the regulated community who produce environmental data, to use the data quality objectives process and document the output in a QAPP. QAPPs describe in comprehensive detail how quality assurance and quality control are applied to an environmental data operation to assure the results obtained are sufficient to support a decision. QAPPs must be developed following U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements and guidance.
- Guidance on Systematic Planning Using the Data Quality Objectives Process (QA/G-4): EPA guidance that provides a standard working tool for project managers and planners to develop data quality objectives for determining the type, quantity and quality of data needed to reach defensible decisions or make credible estimates
- EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans (QA/R-5): Outlines requirements for QAPPs prepared for activities funded by EPA
- Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans (QA/G-5): EPA guidance to organizations developing QAPPs that address the specifications listed in EPA Requirements for QA Project Plans (QA/R-5)
- Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans for Modeling (QA/G-5M): EPA guidance to organizations developing QAPPs for modeling projects
Additional Resources:
- EPA Quality Management Tools for Projects: Information, resources and training regarding QAPPs
- Managing the Quality of Environmental Data at EPA Region 7: Quality assurance resources from EPA Region 7
QAPPs are used for data collection across the department. Below is information about QAPPs as related to each area.