The purpose of this rulemaking is to update the Department’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Field Activities (DEP-SOP-001/01) and Laboratory Activities (DEP-SOP-002/01). The majority of these updates are intended to clarify and/or correct procedures in the original documents, and should have minimal effect on a majority of laboratory or field operations. There are, however, a limited number of new Standard Operating Procedures for conducting and interpreting biological assessments, which represent recent advances in environmental science. As part of this rulemaking, the Department is also clarifying the process by which data usability is assessed in a new document, which will be incorporated by reference, titled “Department of Environmental Protection Process for Assessing Data Usability”, (DEP-EA-001/07).