Regulations dealing with how laboratories are approved for conducting laboratory analyses of soil, water or air samples at leaking underground storage tanks and contaminated sites were adopted by the Department of Environmental Conservation on March 29, 2017, with an effective date of July 1, 2017. The regulations have been made permanent and have been filed by the Lt. Governor. The regulations will appear in Register 222, July 2017, of the Alaska Administrative Code. The regulations changes are summarized as follows:

Most of the elements of the existing in-house laboratory approval program were repealed and the department now accepts approvals from two existing national certifications programs. The amendments also provided requirements and criteria to reflect how the new approval process will function and be overseen by the Contaminated Sites Program in the Spill Prevention and Response Division.

The following sections were amended:
18 AAC 75.990, 18 AAC 78.007, 18 AAC 78.090, 18 AAC 78.235, 18 AAC 78.271,
18 AAC 78.275, 18 AAC 78.600, 18 AAC 78.615, 18 AAC 78.800, 18 AAC 78.810,18 AAC 78.815,
18 AAC 78.995