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2.
MERC QUALITY SYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
2.1.
Quality Assurance Policy
It is MERC’s policy to apply the highest level of QA to insure confidence that its services, products, and
data meet or exceed meet the requirements of internal and external customers and that sufficient resources
shall be available to develop and maintain the quality system. MERC will implement best practices in
testing and assessment; ensure that organizations participating in testing have a quality system consistent
with this QMP; ensure that testing is conducted according to the applicable Quality Assurance Project
Plan (QAPP); and that test reports are supported by quality-assured data.
2.2.
Allocation of Appropriate Resources to Support the Quality System
MERC supports implementation of this QA policy by supplying the resources, including staff, supplies,
and support, needed to achieve the goals of each test of BWTS technology. MERC provides in-house and
contracted expertise in quality assurance for all BWTS tests. Sufficient resources will be budgeted each
fiscal year to ensure that both the Quality Assurance (QA) Manager and MERC staff are able to fulfill
their responsibilities under this plan. The MERC Director and the QA Manager will work with MERC
and MERC Partners’ staffs to develop QAPPS to assure that the quality system is understood and
implemented by all research and technical personnel working on the BWTS tests.
2.3.
Organization and Quality System Roles, Responsibilities, and Authorities
MERC was created as a collaboration between the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) and the
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL)
and has received support from MPA, US Maritime Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and American Bureau of Shipping. CBL is the lead institution and the MERC Director is
a member of the CBL/UMCES faculty. Other MERC testing and research partners include the
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), University of Maryland College Park (UMD),
University of Maryland Wye Research and Education Center (WREC) and Old Dominion University
(ODU). The organization chart for MERC is provided in Figure 1.0 and shows key MERC staff and their
reporting lines. Descriptions of key MERC staff are provided below. The names, mailing/email
addresses, and phone/facsimile numbers of current staff are included in Appendix A. Executing an
effective QA program demands the commitment of and attention of both management and staff.
Figure 2. MERC Organization