ISO 5667-24 – Auditing Water Quality Sampling

In honor of Earth Day, we’re going to take a look at the new ISO 5667-24, “Water quality – Sampling – Part 24: Guidance on the auditing of water quality sampling.”  This new standard provides the information you need to verify that a water quality sampling plan is working correctly!  It’s used for water sampling in all kinds of situations — from drinking water to water storage to wastewater and so on.  Failures of water sampling programs can be caused by a variety of reasons.  An audit program like this can help avoid costly and dangerous situations from developing.

What exactly does ISO 5667-24 provide?  The standard includes an “audit protocol to monitor conformity with declared, or assumed, practices in all areas of water quality sampling.”  So you’ll learn how to set up a systematic methodology for assessing practices and procedures used in the field according to your organization’s sampling manual.  This covers all activities from the development of the manual to the delivery of the samples to a testing lab.

What are the special areas covered by the standard?  Of course, the beginning of the standard covers the usual scope, referenced documents and terms and definitions sections.  Next the standard addresses the issues that arise when audits involve more than 1 auditor.  Three sections are devoted to determining auditing objectives — general, internal audits and external audits (third party).

While risk assessment should be part of your audit design, it is not a requirement in this standard.  However, Section 8 provides you with criteria for the indentification of critical factors in your sampling process.  And Section 9 discusses the risk-based approaches as contrasted with judgement-based ones, including auditing assumptions.

Of course a critical component of any process is its documentation, and Section 10 covers how to audit documents involved in the sampling process (like the manual and instruction guides, etc.).  Section 11 covers the real-time audit, again including information on audit forms and field observation.

Now you need to design your audit plan, and that’s covered in Section 12.  Section 13 follows up with how to actually conduct the field assessments and Section 14 reviews the audit methodology.  The final three sections cover completing the audit, creating the audit report and statement of findings, and a review using an outline flow diagram of the audit process itself.  There are 3 informative Annexes as well:  Audit forms, suggested procedures for monitoring your temperature control, and of course, measurement of uncertainty issues.  A 17-item bibliography complete this extensive 106-page publication.

There are extensive rules and regulations regarding water quality.  But without an auditable sampling process to verify that water quality standards are being met, the system is vulnerable to errors and abuse.  The use of the ISO 5667-24 is a good step in the right direction for organizations to tighten up their procedures and processes and to prove that they consistently are meeting regulatory requirements.

If you need a copy of this International Standard, use an authorized distributor like Document Center Inc. for your purchase.  We have been selling standards since 1982 and have had our catalog on the web since 1993 for you to use to search for and order standards.  Go to www.document-center.com for your compliance information needs.  Here is a direct link to the order page for the new ISO 5667-24.  And if you need additional information on the other standards in the ISO 5667 series or on water quality in general, please see our Document Center List of Standards on Water Quality and follow the links to the topics you need.

You may have additional questions or want to start working with Document Center more closely.  We have any number of products and services that can assist you in your compliance efforts.  Just reach out to us by phone (650-591-7600) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’re your Standards Experts!