2022 New York Laws
PBH - Public Health
Article 5 - Laboratories
Title 1 - General Provisions: State Laboratories; Approved Laboratories
502 - Environmental Laboratories; Examinations; Certificates of Approval.

§  502.  Environmental  laboratories;  examinations;  certificates  of
approval.  1.  For  the  purposes  of   this   section,   "environmental
laboratory"  is  any  facility  that  examines  or  is available for the
examination of samples or specimens including, but not limited to:  air,
stack   emissions,  water,  wastewater,  surface  water,  ground  water,
recreational waters, swimming pools, leachate, land runoff, solid waste,
hazardous  waste,  soil,  sediments  and  vegetation,  as  well  as  any
substance  that  could  contribute  to the pollution of or that could be
contaminated by material contained in such samples  or  specimens.  Such
examinations  shall  be  limited  to  the  qualitative  or  quantitative
determinations of the biological, chemical,  radiochemical  or  physical
characteristics  of such samples or specimens for the purposes of public
or personal health protection or the protection of  the  environment  or
natural   resources.   Environmental   laboratories  shall  not  include
non-laboratory  chemical  testing  associated  with  residential   water
softeners and residential swimming pools.
  2.  No environmental laboratory may perform any examination on samples
collected in the state of New York for which the commissioner  issues  a
certificate  of  approval for such examination unless the laboratory has
been issued such certificate of approval. Such  laboratory  examinations
shall conform to any conditions under which the approval is granted.
  3. The commissioner may issue to laboratories certificates of approval
covering laboratory examinations, including but not limited to, specific
procedures  or  specialities  within  such  categories  as  wastewaters,
potable waters, sediments, solid wastes, and air, and may prescribe  the
conditions  under  which such approvals will be granted. Notwithstanding
any other conditions which he may prescribe, such an approval shall  not
be issued hereafter to a laboratory, not heretofore approved, unless the
director  or  other  person in charge of such examinations shall possess
such educational and technical qualifications as the commissioner  shall
prescribe.
  4. No state agency, authority, county, city, including the city of New
York,  town,  village, water district, sewer district or other political
subdivision  of  the  state  shall  contract  with  any  laboratory  for
laboratory  examinations  for which the commissioner issues certificates
of approval pursuant to subdivision three of this section,  unless  such
laboratory has been issued such certificate.
  5.  Subject  to  the  approval  of  the  director  of  the budget, the
commissioner shall charge adequate and reasonable fees for the  periodic
inspection of out-of-state laboratories.
  6.  Subject  to  the  approval  of  the  director  of  the budget, the
commissioner shall charge laboratories fees to recover the cost  to  the
department  of operating this program. The commissioner may waive all or
any part of such fee charges for laboratories  operated  by  the  state.
Fees shall include the following:
  (a)  a  basic  amount  of  five  hundred dollars to be charged to each
laboratory;
  (b) the balance of the program cost from:
  (1) an additional amount to be charged to each laboratory proportional
to total adjusted volume of analytes performed by the laboratory in  the
preceding  year  as  defined in regulations of the department, the total
amount collected from which shall equal fifty percent of the balance  of
the program costs;
  (2) an additional amount to be charged to each laboratory proportional
to  the  number  of  analytes  for  which  such laboratory maintains its
certification.
  Subparagraph one of paragraph (b) of this subdivision shall not  apply
to government laboratories.

  7.  For  those  categories, procedures or specialities as specified in
subdivision three for which the commissioner has issued certificates  of
approval,  the  commissioner  shall  within thirty days of receipt of an
application for a certificate from a laboratory existing  on  or  before
April  first, nineteen hundred ninety-three, which is initially required
to obtain certification, review such application and  issue  an  interim
certificate  of  approval  in  the  particular  category,  procedure  or
speciality to all laboratories which provide adequate  documentation  in
their  application  that  they are capable of performing quality work in
the  category,  procedure  or  speciality  under  review.   An   interim
certificate  of approval in specified categories will remain valid until
such time as  the  commissioner  shall  reach  a  determination  on  the
application.
  8.  The  commissioner  may  adopt  and  amend rules and regulations to
effectuate the provisions and purposes of this title.
  9. A person who intentionally violates or refuses or omits  to  comply
with subdivision two of this section, or any regulation adopted pursuant
thereto,  is  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, punishable upon conviction, by
imprisonment for not more than one year or by a fine of  not  more  than
one  thousand dollars or by both such fine and imprisonment. A second or
subsequent conviction shall be punishable by imprisonment for  not  more
than  one  year  or  a  fine  of not more than two thousand five hundred
dollars or by both such fine and imprisonment.
  10. The department may require an environmental laboratory  to  report
laboratory  test  results  to  the  department,  or  to any other health
department in an electronic manner prescribed by the department.