As mandated by the Clean Water Act, wastewater treatment facilities are regulated under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Direct discharges have unique NPDES permit with discharge limits and a self-monitoring requirement. The effectiveness of the NPDES Program hinges on the quality of the self-monitoring data.

The DMR QA Program evaluates the date quality from the NPDES permittees. Since 1978, the Program has helped to assure the data quality of DMRs. Under this Program, all major permittees are annually sent performance samples, to be analyzed and reported the same way as required in the permits. The results of these permittee tests are compared with an established range of acceptance for each test parameter by EPA to identify potential problems with analytical or reporting procedures. EPA/State then follow-up through correspondence or on-site visits with permittees to resolve the problems.

As an overview, the history, authority, procedures, use of data, and implementation issues are reviewed.