Environmental Technical Advisory Committee (ELTAC)
Background
The Environmental Laboratory Technical Advisory Committee (ELTAC) is an advisory body to the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) and other California regulatory agencies. The committee is established in the California Health and Safety Code, section 100863, which requires the State Water Board to appoint a "multidisciplinary committee to assist, advise, and make recommendations regarding technical, scientific, and administrative matters concerning the accreditation or certification of environmental laboratories."
ELTAC is governed by By-Laws adopted by committee members and approved by Division of Drinking Water executive management.
Mission Statement
(Established May 11, 2016)
ELTAC serves to facilitate transparency, as an inclusive conduit for the fair and balanced exchange of information and dialogue between the laboratory community, California regulatory agencies, data users, and ELAP. ELTAC works to provide support, critical stakeholder review, scientifically valid advice, and unbiased guidance to ELAP on technical issues and the foreseeable effects that ELAP regulatory decisions may have, to ensure public health and environmental protection. ELTAC partners with ELAP to create and maintain a high quality accreditation program to meet the needs of the laboratory community, California regulatory agencies, and data users.
Membership
The committee is composed of 10 appointed and voting members representing a variety of expertise in the areas of environmental testing, laboratory accreditation, and method development and validation. Members are selected by the Deputy Director of the Division of Drinking Water to serve a two-year term, and includes both regulated stakeholders, and data users. There are two types of members – voting representatives from the scientific and laboratory community and non-voting members representing state agency partners and the public.
Meetings
The committee meets up to three times a year. Meetings are publicly noticed ten days prior to the meeting and provide many opportunities for public and community input. All ELTAC Meetings comply with the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. Read A Handy Guide to the Act.
Visit the ELTAC Meetings webpage for more details.
Products, Documents, and Input
ELTAC provides support to both ELAP and California State Regulatory Agencies who use data from ELAP accredited laboratories. Agencies or Programs like ELAP or the State Water Board bring topics for ELTAC members to discuss and for expert opinions on what path(s) to take. Decisions made by ELTAC sometimes create or result in the creation of official documents or formal recommendations from the committee as a whole.
Due to AB 434 web content accessibility requirements, records from ELTAC meetings prior to 2021 are not posted online. For information on previous ELTAC meetings email elapca@waterboards.ca.gov.
