Groundwater Professional Bulletin Board

RBCA REPORT REVIEWS

A process improvement recommendation from the Report Review Kaizen Event was to track more closely the RBCA Report acceptance rates for certified groundwater professionals and identify ways to improve the quality of reports. The current acceptance rates for Reclassification Site Monitoring Reports is 57%, 69% for Tier 1 Reports and 67% for Tier 2 Reports. Various suggestions were discussed for improving the quality of reports. These suggestions included:

• Certified Groundwater Professionals (CGWPs) review RBCA reports with the appropriate checklist before it is submitted to DNR. The checklists are posted on the Groundwater Professional Bulletin Board.
• Consulting firms develop RBCA process training programs for new employees.
• CGWPs consider DNR report review letters as training opportunities.
• DNR investigate ways to require additional training or suspension of certification for those groundwater professionals that consistently submit substandard reports.

We are interested in your suggestions for improving the quality of DNR RBCA Report reviews. For example, we are interested in your comments and examples where:

• Report review comments lack consistency between reports.
• Reports have been rejected only for reasons not related to the determination of risk.
• Report review comments are not clear or conflict with guidance.
• Guidance for general site situations is not available or is unclear.

Please direct your examples and comments to Elaine Douskey at (515)281-8011 or elaine.douskey@dnr.state.ia.us

We are currently in the process of modifying our data system so we can better track the quality of the reports we receive from CGWPs. The modification will be completed within the next couple of weeks.

At the request of the Kaizen team we are posting the notes from the file exchange between DNR and Preston Engineering. Preston Engineering has the staff assistance contract with the UST Fund for the review of RBCA Reports. A file exchange is typically conducted weekly. It was also suggested that DNR post notes from staff meetings when a decision on the administration of LUST site activities is discussed. Please consider these postings as a teaching opportunity. However, be aware the discussions in the postings generally are only applicable to specific conditions at a site and should not be considered as guidance for all sites.

Please contact Elaine Douskey at (515)281-8011 or elaine.douskey@dnr.state.ia.us if you have questions.