United States Office of Research and EPA/600/K-96/003 

Environmental Protection Development February 1997 

Agency Washington DC 20460 Updated September 1997 

Environmental Technology 

Verification Program 

Verification Strategy 
 Verification Strategy i

EPA/600/K-96/003 

February 1997 

Updated September 1997 

Environmental Technology 

Verification Program 

Verification Strategy 

Office of Research and Development 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Washington, DC 20460 

Printed on Recycled Paper 
 Verification Strategy ii 
Foreword 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of 

Research and Development (ORD) is publishing this document, 

Verification Strategy, to report the goals, operating principles, and future 

plans of the newly created Environmental Technology Verification 

Program (ETV). ETV is intended to expand the environmental technology 

choices of public and private decision makers, both in our country and 

abroad. The use of new technologies will allow faster and more thorough 

pollution prevention, control, cleanup, and monitoring, while bringing the 

overall cost of regulatory compliance down. 

Evaluations of promising new technologies by ETV should be 

useful to a broad array of organizations: 

•	 Buyers of technology, and the consulting engineering community 

that advises them, who need an objective source of data to make 

informed purchasing decisions. 

•	 Permitters at state, local and federal level who must decide on 

which technologies to allow into use. 

•	 The financial community that must determine the level of risk 

involved in supporting innovative technology developers. 

•	 Vendors who want to market their products on a level


playing field of objectively acquired data.


The challenges of the next three years will be substantial as we 

produce and broadly distribute credible data that are products of ETV. 

Meeting these challenges will ensure that the environment, the economy, 

and the marketplace benefit from the steady stream of scientific and 

technological innovation this program will encourage. 

Mr. Henry L. Longest II 

Acting Assistant Administrator 

Office of Research and Development 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

 Verification Strategy iii 
Contents 

Page 

Foreword ................................................................................................... iii


Background ............................................................................................... 1


Important Definitions.................................................................................. 2


Operating Principles .................................................................................. 3


ETV Pilot Process ..................................................................................... 7


Selection Criteria for ETV Pilot Projects .................................................... 9


2001 Report to Congress ........................................................................ 11


ETV Program Vision and Projected Development Scenario ................... 11


ETV Web Site Information ....................................................................... 14


Verification Strategy iv 
Environmental Technology Verification Program 

Verification Strategy 

Background 

Throughout its history, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) has evaluated technologies to determine their effectiveness in 

monitoring, preventing, controlling, and cleaning up pollution. Since the 

early 1990s, however, numerous government and private groups have 

identified the lack of an organized and ongoing program to produce 

independent, credible performance data as a major impediment to the 

development and use of innovative environmental technology. Such data 

are needed by technology buyers and permitters both at home and abroad 

to make informed technology decisions. Because of this broad input, the 

President’s environmental technology strategy, Bridge to a Sustainable 

Future, and the Vice President’s National Performance Review, contain 

initiatives for an EPA program to accelerate the development of 

environmental technology through objective verification and reporting of 

technology performance. In 1994, EPA’s Office of Research and Development formed a workgroup to plan the implementation of the Environmental 

Technology Verification Program (ETV). The workgroup produced a 

Verification White Paper that guided the initial stages of the program. This 

document, Verification Strategy, updates the earlier paper based upon the 

evolution of the program over the last two years. It outlines the operating 

principles and implementation activities that are shaping the program, as 

well as the challenges that are emerging and the decisions that must be 

addressed in the future. ETV will continue to be modified through input 

from all parties having a stake in environmental technology, through further 

operational experience, and through formal evaluation of the program. 

The goal of ETV, which remains unchanged, is to verify the 

environmental performance characteristics of commercial-ready technology through the evaluation of objective and quality assured data, so that 

potential purchasers and permitters are provided with an independent and 

credible assessment of what they are buying and permitting. 

Verification Strategy 1 
Important Definitions 

A clear definition of the words “evaluate” and “verify”, along with the 

word “certify”, is important to establish at the outset of the program. The 

technology development community, the regulated community, and those 

charged with executing environmental standards at all levels of 

government require a precise understanding of what EPA means and does 

not mean by the activities to be undertaken through ETV. 

EPA intends to sponsor the evaluation of environmental technologies 

through adequate testing and verify that they perform at the levels reported. 

By evaluate and verify we mean: 

Evaluate / Evaluation 

To carefully examine and judge the efficacy of a technology; to 

submit technologies for testing under conditions of observation and 

analysis; syn., measure, estimate, classify, test. 

Verify / Verification 

To establish or prove the truth of the performance of a technology 

under specific, predetermined criteria or protocols and adequate 

data quality assurance procedures; syn., confirm, corroborate, 

substantiate, validate. 

EPA does not intend to certify that a technology will always, or 

under circumstances other than those used in testing, operate at the levels 

verified. By certify we mean: 

Certify / Certification 

To guarantee a technology as meeting a standard or performance 

criteria into the future; syn., ensure, warrant, guarantee. 

EPA understands that the word certify can have a variety of 

meanings, but the Agency believes that the above definition is the one 

most commonly understood. Misuse of the term could cause confusion 

among the public. 

2 Verification Strategy 
Operating Principles 

Several important operating principles have defined the basic ETV 

program structure and remain fundamental to its operation. These are 

briefly outlined below. 

1. Performance Evaluation Goal 

Under ETV, environmental technologies are evaluated to ascertain and 

report their performance characteristics. EPA and its partners will not 

seek to determine regulatory compliance; will not rank technologies or 

compare their performance; will not label or list technologies as 

acceptable or unacceptable; and will not seek to determine “best 

available technology” in any form. In general, the Agency will avoid all 

potential pathways to picking “winners and losers”. The goal of the 

program is to make objective performance information available to all of 

the actors in the environmental marketplace for their consideration and 

decision making. 

2. Commercial-Ready Technologies 

The ETV program is a service of EPA to the domestic and international 

marketplace in order to encourage rapid acceptance and 

implementation of improved environmental technology. ETV, therefore, 

focuses its resources on technologies that are either in, or ready for, 

full-scale commercialization. The program does not evaluate 

technologies at the pilot or bench scale and does not conduct or 

support research. Participation in ETV is completely voluntary. 

3. Third-Party Verification Organizations 

ETV leverages the capacity, expertise, and existing facilities of others 

through third-party partnerships in order to achieve universal coverage 

for all technology types as rapidly as possible. Third-party verification 

organizations are chosen from the both the public and private sector, 

Verification Strategy 3 
including states, universities, associations, business consortia, private 

testing firms, and federal laboratories. EPA designs and conducts 

auditing and oversight procedures of these organizations, as 

appropriate, to assure the credibility of the process and data. In order to 

determine if EPA participation is important to the commercialization 

process, ETV is testing the option of one totally unstructured and 

independent, private sector pilot in which EPA’s role will be solely 

fiduciary. In addition, the Agency will continue to publish the results of 

commercial-ready technology evaluations that it conducts in the normal 

course of its business. 

4. Pilot Phase 

The program will begin with a five year pilot phase to test a wide range 

of partner and procedural alternatives, as well as the true market 

demand for and response to such a program. Throughout the pilot 

period, EPA and its partners will operate in a flexible and creative 

manner in order to identify new and efficient methods to verify 

environmental technologies, while maintaining the highest credibility 

standards. The operational objective will be to actively look for ways to 

optimize procedures without compromising quality. The ultimate 

objective of the pilot phase is to design and implement a permanent 

verification capacity and program within EPA, should the evaluation of 

the effectiveness of the program warrant it. 

5. Pilot Technology Areas 

ETV has begun with pilots in narrow technology areas in each of the 

major environmental media and will expand as appropriate, based on 

market forces, availability of resources, and the willingness of the 

marketplace to pay for third-party verification. For example, the drinking 

water technology pilot has started with a focus on microbial and 

particulate contaminants, and disinfection byproducts in small systems 

(less than 3300 users), an obvious and very large domestic and 

international market with pressing environmental problems. In future 

years, the program will be expanded to the wider area of nitrates and 

synthetic organic chemicals and pesticides in all drinking water 

systems. Success in particular technology areas will allow the program 

to have a “pump-priming” effect to bring new technologies to the 

marketplace. Selection criteria for ETV pilot programs and other 

verification focus areas are discussed in a subsequent section of this 

paper. 

4 Verification Strategy 
6. Stakeholder Groups 

ETV is guided and shaped by using the expertise of appropriate 

stakeholder groups in all aspects of the program. These groups consist 

of representatives of all verification customer groups: buyers and users 

of technology, developers and vendors, and, most importantly, 

technology “enablers”, i.e., the consulting engineering community that 

recommends technology alternatives to purchasers, and the state 

permitters and regulators who allow it to be used. Stakeholder groups 

must be unique to each technology area in order to capture the 

important individual aspects of the different environmental media and to 

get buy-in from affected groups. For example, state drinking water 

permitters are necessary to participate in development of testing 

protocols for cryptosporidium; air pollution regulators are needed to 

evaluate innovative compliance monitoring devices; metal production 

parts manufacturers need to help design testing procedures for new 

coating compounds. In general, the role of stakeholders will be to assist 

in the development of procedures and protocols, prioritize types of 

technologies to be verified, review all important documents emerging 

from the pilot, assist in defining and conducting outreach activities 

appropriate to the particular area, and, finally, to serve as information 

conduits to the particular constituencies that they represent. As of 

September 1997, over 180 individuals are serving in the six 

stakeholder groups formed to date. 

7. Private Sector Funding 

Over the five year pilot phase of the program, the costs of verifying 

technologies in many pilots will move from a primarily government 

funded effort to a primarily private sector funded effort. At least two 

pilots will be vendor supported from the beginning. The original goal, as 

articulated in the 1994 strategy, called for complete private sector 

sponsorship within three years. A recent review (1995) of the program 

by a distinguished panel of outside experts convened by the EPA 

Science Advisory Board (SAB) concluded that such a goal was 

probably not achievable in so short a time-frame (they suggested five to 

eight years) and that some level of government support (10 to 20% of 

ongoing costs) would remain necessary to keep the activity viable. 

Conclusions on this issue will be reached as data emerge on the 

economic value-added of the program and the level of cost that the 

private sector is willing to bear in the various technology sectors. 

Verification Strategy 5 
8. Pilot Evaluation and Program Decisions 

The Agency will collect data on operational parameters, e.g., number of 

participants; cost and time required to perform tests and report results, 

and on outcomes, e.g., use of data by the states and public; sales 

reported by vendors, in order to evaluate all aspects of the program. 

EPA will use this information to make long-term recommendations to 

the Congress on the future and shape of the program in 2001. Among 

the choices at that time will be the formulation of a permanent, broad 

scale program; the narrowing of efforts to certain areas in which ETV 

appears to be effective; or the discontinuance of verification efforts. The 

latter conclusion could be reached either because state regulators/ 

permit writers and the technology innovation industry are not assisted 

by ETV or because the cost of verification proves to be prohibitive. 

9. Outreach and Information Diffusion 

As was pointed out by the SAB in its 1995 review of ETV, verification 

alone will not move better, cheaper, faster technologies to success in 

the marketplace. In particular, substantive and substantial interface with 

the permitters of environmental technology (primarily at the state level) 

will be necessary to have any chance of rapidly implementing 

innovative approaches. To date, the outreach activities of the program 

have been limited to assuring substantial state representation on the 

Stakeholder Groups that are designing the protocols and procedures 

for each pilot; developing informational fact sheets about the program; 

and placing a Web page on the Internet. In 1998, the Agency intends to 

develop an overarching outreach strategy through consultation with all 

affected groups and with the help of major organizations in the 

technology area, e.g., National Governors Association, Western 

Governors Association, Environmental Council of the States, National 

Pollution Prevention Roundtable, appropriate corporations, and others. 

10.Market Gap Definition 

Lastly, EPA will track applications and expressions of interest on the 

part of technology developers who come to all parts of the Agency that 

do not fit into the present suite of verification activities. This universe 

will be characterized during the initial stages of the pilot period and a 

strategy to address gaps will be developed. 

6 Verification Strategy 
ETV Pilot Process 

Although a wide degree of flexibility will characterize the pilot 

projects (see above), each ETV pilot generally will go through two periods 

of development: an organizational phase and an operational phase (see 

Figure 1). 

Figure 1. ETV Pilot Process 

Verification Strategy 7 

Organization Phase Operations Phase 

Verification Organization (VO) 

Selected 

(EPA) 

Stakeholder Groups Formulated 

(EPA/VO) 

Technologies Prioritized 

and 

Generic Protocols Developed 

(EPA/VO/Stakeholders) 

Open Solicitation

 (VO) 

Generic/Tailored Test Plans 

(Developer/VO) 

Testing by VO 

OR 

Testing by Developer 

(With VO Oversight) 

Verification Report/Statement 

(EPA/VO) 

Information Diffusion 

(EPA/Stakeholders) 

QA Evaluation 

(EPA/VO) 
Organizational Phase 

During the organizational phase, EPA will select one or more partner 

organizations to oversee and conduct verification activities. This 

important step will usually occur through an open solicitation process, 

although some exceptions will be appropriate. All partner proposals will 

be peer reviewed. EPA and its partner(s) will then select approximately 

25 appropriate participants for the Stakeholder Group (see #6) that will 

guide the progress of the program. EPA may formulate the 

Stakeholders Group prior to selecting the partner organization if the 

procurement process is protracted. Stakeholder Groups will then begin 

the important process of establishing priorities and defining procedures 

and protocols appropriate to that particular type of environmental 

technology and customer group. 

Operational Phase 

Once the basic building blocks of the program are in place, actual 

verification activities begin (these steps will not always be strictly 

sequential). Verification activities in each technology area will be 

announced in the Commerce Business Daily and other appropriate 

publications to encourage maximal participation by technology 

developers, and to assure a level playing field. Test plans will be 

developed with the participation of developers and tests conducted by 

independent third parties (either the verification organization or other 

testing organizations approved by the verification organization). 

Appropriate quality assurance procedures will be incorporated into all 

aspects of the project and reports will be peer reviewed. Verification 

statements of three to five pages, based on the performance data 

contained in the reports, will be issued by EPA and appear on the ETV 

Internet Web page. Other outreach activities, as defined by the 

Stakeholder Group, such as state permitter training, will be conducted. 

8 Verification Strategy 
Selection Criteria for ETV Pilot Projects 

The appropriate selection of verification pilot programs and other 

ETV verification activities to be carried out under the program is critical to 

its ultimate success. The ETV pilot programs are designed to meet the 

needs of the many stakeholders in environmental technology, while 

allowing EPA to experiment with a variety of procedures and partnership 

arrangements to determine the optimal form of program implementation. 

The following criteria have been used to choose ETV verification pilots 

and other verification activities. The first three criteria are applied in 

cascading order, i.e., each pilot passes the previous criterion in order to go 

on to the next. 

1.	 Address Important Environmental Needs 

All programs conducted by the EPA have environmental improvement 

and protection as their ultimate objective. It is particularly important 

that this program, which is designed to assist the environmental 

technology industry, select pilot verification activities that have clear 

and positive environmental benefits. Such benefits may improve the 

environment by achieving higher levels of pollution reduction or by 

accelerating the rate of technology implementation through lower cost 

or simplified operation. 

2.	 Present Substantial Business Opportunities for the Private 

Sector 

Pilot areas selected have clear market niches, both domestically and 

internationally, that present the potential for a substantial increase in 

technology sales and use. Although voluntary environmental 

improvement technologies, e.g., indoor air filtration systems, and 

existing regulatory program technologies, e.g., hazardous waste 

monitoring devices, are of interest to the program, particular attention 

will be paid to technology areas that stress the Agency’s commitment to 

pollution prevention or address upcoming regulatory requirements and 

Verification Strategy 9 
deadlines that present obvious and major opportunities for innovation 

and increased economic activity. 

3. Involve Multiple Developers and Vendors 

To clearly demonstrate the potential of a successful verification 

program, the ETV pilots must benefit the largest possible number of 

technology developers and users. Pilot programs will focus on areas in 

which a number of technologies and companies are active. 

The last two criteria are programmatic and allow the Agency to test 

operating program parameters in the pilot phase. 

4. Address the Full Range of Environmental Media 

Assuring that all major environmental media and program areas are 

included in the pilots will allow ETV to begin interaction with interested 

parties, e.g., technology developers, technology buyers, regulation 

writers and state permitters, across a broad range of environmental 

areas. This will assist the program to identify particularly fruitful 

technology focus areas for the future, spread the word about the EPA 

verification function widely, identify regulatory barriers that inhibit the 

use of verified technologies, and assist developers across a wide 

spectrum of technology. 

5. Test a Variety of Verification Organization Types 

As described above, EPA is interested in evaluating all possible 

verification organization alternatives, including federal government 

laboratories, state verification programs, universities, industry 

associations, independent testing organizations, and developer 

conducted testing (with verification organization or EPA oversight). 

Pilot programs selected are expected to cover all of these alternatives. 

Having applied the above criteria to a wide variety of potential pilot 

candidates, the Agency has selected twelve categories as ETV pilots (see 

Table 1). 

10 Verification Strategy 
Table 1. ETV Pilots 

1.	 Site Characterization & Monitoring Technologies 

2.	 P2, Recycling & Waste Treatment Technologies 

3.	 Drinking Water Systems 

4.	 Indoor Air Products 

5.	 P2 Innovative Coatings and Coating Equipment 

6.	 EvTEC (any technology area) 

7.	 Advanced Monitoring Systems (Air and Water) 

8.	 Air Pollution Control Technology 

9.	 Greenhouse Gas Technology 

10.	 Wet Weather Flow Technologies 

11.	 Source Water Protection Technologies 

12.	 P2 Metal Finishing Technologies 

2001 Report to Congress 

ETV will prepare a Report to Congress, to be sumitted in 2001. The 

questions that will be addressed in the Report include: 

1.	 Does the environmental marketplace need/value an EPA


verification program?


2.	 Is the need different from one technology area to another? 

3.	 Can we design a credible program that the developer community 

can afford? 

4.	 Where is value added from ETV: 

• Protocol development? 

• Third party QA oversight? 

• EPA Verification Statement? 

ETV Program Vision and Projected Development 

Scenario 

Figure 2 lays out the projected ten year development scenario for 

the ETV Program in which assumptions are made concerning: (1) the 

amount of funding received by the program; (2) the number of viable 

technology areas (defined as pilots in the early stages) needed; (3) the 

number of EPA staff assigned to quality assurance and technical oversight; 

and (4) the number of new technologies that come to the program for 

verification. All of these assumptions are projections based upon the 

Verification Strategy 11 
Figure 2. ETV Program Scenario 

50


45


40


35


30


25


20


15


10


5


0


1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 

Federal $M Per Year Technology Areas 

# Verified Technologies Per Year FTE 

experience of technology verification programs in other fields and the level 

of resources needed to accomplish the work projected. Changes to any of 

the assumptions would, of course, change all of the projections. 

1. Federal Funding 

The projected budget moves from $7M in 1995 to $10M for three years 

of development and building market acceptance. It then begins a 

gradual decline as the private sector pays more and more of the costs. 

By 2005 the steady-state cost of the program for all environmental 

areas is projected to be $2M. 

12 Verification Strategy 
2. Technology Areas 

Starting in 1995, pilot programs gradually expand to cover all 

appropriate environmental areas (areas defined primarily by customer 

groups). By 1998, twelve areas are defined and implemented and 

remain in place throughout the program, although their technology 

focus can shift over time, based on market forces. 

3. EPA Personnel2 

EPA staff necessary to oversee third-party verifiers and maintain the 

quality and credibility of the program move from 10 in 1995 to as many 

as 30 while the program is in its formative stages. As procedures and 

quality assurance measurers become routinized, staff demands 

gradually lower to a steady state of 10 FTE by 2003. 

4. Verified Technologies 

Due to a demand backlog, the number of technologies verified rapidly 

rises from five in 1996 to 50 in 2001, and then declines to a steady state 

of about 30 to 35 technologies each year. 

If executed as projected in this scenario, the Environmental 

Technology Verification Program could reasonably be expected to verify 

the performance of approximately 300 innovative technologies in a 

decade. 

2	 EPA personnel are assigned to ETV from appropriate media areas (e.g., drinking 

water, advanced air monitors) within ORD’s national laboratories and centers 

based upon programmatic requirements. Six EPA staff are assigned to ETV 

directly for management coordination, information dissemination, and oversight. 

Verification Strategy 13 
ETV Web Site Information


Accessing the Latest ETV Information 

Ongoing information about the progress of the ETV Program, 

including all published documents and a list of upcoming events, can 

be downloaded from the ETV Web Site at http://www.epa.gov/etv 

14 Verification Strategy