NEMC 2006: 22nd Annual National Environmental Monitoring Conference

The conference brings together scientists, analysts, engineers, and managers from Federal and State agencies, the regulated community, and the laboratory and engineering support communities in an informal setting in our nation’s capital. It includes technical sessions, a plenary session, training courses, exhibits, and networking opportunities.

The theme for this year’s conference is designed to complement an initiative recently begun by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST-facilitated initiative, “NIST Assessment of the U.S. Measurement System” (http://usms.nist.gov/), is designed to provide an evaluation of the “breadth, depth and overall health of the U.S. measurement system.” The final report, expected in early 2007, will identify priority measurement infrastructure needs across industry and the economy, recommend steps to address them, and point out the consequences of inaction. The 2006 NEMC will provide information to NIST to support this important governmental initiative, while addressing issues of concern to the environmental monitoring community.

The 2006 conference is proposed as a series of sessions on the three main topics of the NIST initiative—health, depth and breadth. Health will investigate whether the U.S. environmental testing industry is delivering the quality of data needed. Depth will look at how well the necessary technologies detect all contaminants of concern at the required levels. Breadth will evaluate how comprehensive testing is relative to the needs.