DMAC Update
by Latonia Cheatham Strickland
The Data Management Advisory Committee (DMAC) co-chairs would like to thank our Quick Response Team (QRT) members for all of their hard work on the review of the Revised Total Coliform Rule (RTCR) Data Entry Instructions (DEI). Included below are the members who participated on the team. The QRT members are: Hal Frank (IA), Sarah Pierson (IN), Kate Gilmore (LA), Wayne Wang (IN), Jason Minnich (PA), Damon Guterman (MA), Laurie Cullerot (NH), Andrew Waite (Region 6), Mark McCasland (Region 6), Christopher Roy (CT), and Benny Laughlin (AL).
In May DMAC introduced our new co-chair, Rachael Cassady, at the Data Management User Conference. Our long time co-chair Joe Carlson stepped down. Joe has been, and continues to be, an amazing champion for DMAC. During his tenure as co-chair, the Data Quality Matrix was put in place. Additionally, he was integral in recruitment of the members to our QRT. DMAC would like to thank Joe for all of his contributions and we are looking forward to working with Joe in other capacities.
Our new Co-Chair Rachael isn’t new to SDWIS and to the SDW program; she has been working with this program for 21 years. Rachael serves as the SDWIS state coordinator for Utah. She brings extraordinary technical qualifications to this leadership position. Rachael serves as co-chair of the Interfacing Application User Group. As many PA’s will be making the change from SDWIS state to Prime, Rachael’s forward thinking leadership will assist DMAC in gathering in one place the best data quality practices used by Primacy Agencies. One of the first Initiatives Rachael is putting in place is the Best Practice Initiatives.
What is the Best Practice Initiatives? The Best Practice Initiatives is consolidating Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) from SDWIS experts, in one area, on the ASDWA site. As many of our current SDWIS coordinators are contemplating retirement, where will the next generation of SDWIS managers attain the institutional knowledge to run and manage their own respective programs? We know that technology will improve and new systems will be adopted, but the main foundation of managing and implementing a system will not change. Our new co-chair, Rachael Cassady, believes that putting this information in a useful format will be helpful in assisting and preserving institutional knowledge, as training and resources for those new to SDWIS.
In July, DMAC, in coordination with ASDWA, hosted its first series of webinars focused on gathering best data quality practices from other Primacy Agencies. Barrett Brown, of North Dakota, kicked off the new initiative with a webinar walking though how he is able to audit data within SDWIS. Barrettt went through several scripts that he currently runs against his SDWIS database to validate data, and to complete his own data quality checks. He also used several scripts that focused on RTCR. This webinar can be found on the ASDWA site, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX7tYSChb2o&feature=youtu.be. Barrett also included an updated Access database along with the scripts. This also can be accessed via the ASDWA site, at: https://www.asdwa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=474, after first logging in. If you are interested in sharing your Primacy Best Practices, please contact Rachael Cassady by email, at rcassady@utah.gov, or Latonia Cheatham Strickland by email at cheatham-strickland.latonia@epa.gov. If you are interested in attending one of these best practices webinars please contact either of us to join the DMAC email list.
