SBIR/STTR Phase I: Interactive Software for Environmental Sampling and Analysis

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will provide interactive software to improve the quality of data obtained in environmental monitoring projects that involve chemical analysis. It will facilitate understanding and successful implementation of the complex interactions between project data quality objectives, sampling and analytical method selection, and numbers and kinds of samples analyzed. Developing an expert system that can be used as a tool for cost-effective project planning will do this. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated systematic planning for environmental sampling and analysis over ten years ago, successful implementation of it has been difficult. This SBIR project will provide solutions to the frequently misunderstood areas of data quality, information quality, and method performance. It will enable scientists and engineers to generate environmental analytical data at a quality level (and resulting cost) based on the use of that data (i.e., performance based measurement systems - PBMS) instead of only using current prescriptive protocols. Interactive software will be developed that facilitates more rapid and cost-effective environmental sampling and analysis which is based on the interrelated factors of confidence levels, numbers of samples, and analytical method selection. The software will combine method performance information from a new National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI) with U.S. EPA's Data Quality Objective (DQO) Process and a user's desired Measurement Quality Objectives (MQOs). Although it will be primarily a commercially useful product for industry and government organizations, it will also function as an educational tool to support university and technical school curricula. Another potential application is for the software to be incorporated as a technical basis for a future front-end user interface to NEMI.