Accelerating Compilation of Environmental Data into Information

Timely and accurate delivery of complex environmental data under environmental permits and regulatory schedules requires attention to all aspects of the data management process. From sample collection and chain-of-custody tracking to laboratory analysis, quality assurance, and transmission of the data to the agencies – Battelle offers integrated environmental management capabilities to achieve the task at hand: efficient and streamlined compilation of data.

Innovative software technologies developed and implemented by Battelle successfully ensure on-time data delivery, while also enabling clients to examine interim data products via project-specific web portals. Status tools help in-house and client project managers track sample collection, analysis, and data delivery, and demonstrate how Battelle’s web-based systems support data flow, project managers, and visualization. Remote software links fieldwork and laboratory activities via automated quality control procedures prior to submission and again at the reporting stage, substantially shortening the time between data generation, evaluation and synthesis, and public reporting. Embedding the QC measures remotely catches errors earlier, at the time when the technician is still available to provide corrections. Accelerating compilation of environmental data creates information for environmental managers to ensure restoration studies are on track and enables quicker decision making.

Online accessibility to environmental data has played an important role in Battelle’s project for New York and New Jersey’s inter-agency Contamination Assessment and Reduction Program (CARP). Battelle’s role involved building a web-based, rapid turnaround system that coordinated information management for the entire CARP project. The project included creating procedures and methods for sample tracking, lab reporting, data synthesis, and distribution across 12 participating organizations. Battelle was able to provide results within two days of delivery from the field teams and labs. Battelle’s services are being applied to the major field studies, including inter-state water quality assessments, sediment contamination characterization, biota sampling, source trackdown, contaminant load modeling, and integration with historical legacy databases. Battelle is using this web-based system to integrate survey results and interactive screening via generic browsers, as well as portable CD applications for basic querying and mapping services. The database and querying tools fit within the CARP project’s larger, public web presence (www.carpweb.org).

Battelle’s standardized sample tracking and data reporting protocols have allowed numerous disparate field studies to incorporate these flexible tools. CARP managers have also been able to use the near real-time data dissemination to monitor study efforts, which has created opportunities to validate labwork and compare interim results instead of waiting until all studies were completed. CARP’s advanced analytical techniques and extensive online QC requirements have led to lab reporting protocols that are customized, yet can be reconciled with many other electronic data deliverable (EDD) conventions.

To learn more about Battelle’s Environmental Management Information System capabilities, contact Mr. Tom Gulbransen at (631) 941-3211, gulbran@battelle.org.