Ngirchechol is the Environmental Quality Protection Board’s second staff to be certified as a Laboratory Certification Officer.
She went to Cincinnati to attend a training course offered by the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in October of 2008.The course focused on current and new statutes and methods approved by the USEPA in drinking water laboratories with a focus on microbiology.Ngirchechol is the second Palauan that has the capacity to visit and certify drinking water laboratories in the other Freely Associated States within the Micronesian Region.Kliu Basilius, EQPB’s Environmental Outreach Officer said that Ngirchechol’s trip was sponsored by the USEPA Region 9 Freely Associated States Laboratory Certification Program.Basilius added that EQPB Laboratory is the first laboratory in the Micronesian Region to be certified to analyze drinking water for microbiological contaminants.Basilius also said that on January 6, the DAEWOO company donated equipment and supplies to the EQPB Laboratory.The equipment were used by the DAEWOO company to monitor the streams and rivers as part of their work on the Compact Road project.Now that the road is complete, DAEWOO decided to donate the supplies to the EQPB.Basilius said EQPB Laboratory will use some of these supplies. She added that the rest of the supplies will be given to other agencies and some schools for demonstration purposes.
