Who owns lab data and EDDs in EQuIS: client, consultant or lab?

Who owns the data in an EQuIS database?#

The data in an EQuIS database is owned by whoever the contracts say, and the database itself settles nothing. A typical environmental project involves three agreements: the lab's service agreement with the consultant or the client, the consultant's contract with the client, and the software license for EQuIS from EarthSoft. Each covers a different slice of the same records.

In practice, environmental results describe the client's property, so consultant-client contracts usually make the client the owner of site data and deliverables. The consultant keeps a working copy for its records and often retains rights in its pre-existing tools and methods. The lab keeps what it generated for its own quality system.

Who bought the lab services matters too. When the consultant subcontracts the lab, the lab delivers to the consultant, and the consultant's contract with the client decides what passes through. When the client contracts the lab directly, the consultant may only ever hold a copy of results it received for the project.

The three-party matrix#

The matrix maps common record types to the agreement that usually controls them and the party that typically holds the rights. Contract language varies widely, especially in owner-drafted master agreements, so confirm each row against the signed documents.

What sits inside an EQuIS project database?#

An EQuIS project database holds a connected record of an environmental investigation, from where a sample was taken to what the lab found and how the consultant reviewed it. That structure is what makes the records useful, and it is also what makes them sensitive, because every result traces back to a location.

EDD check and load logs deserve special attention. They record each rejected file, the error found and how the lab or data manager corrected it, which documents data quality work rather than site conditions. Keep them with the database at project close, because they are often the first files purged.

• 1Locations: wells, borings and sample points with coordinates.
• 2Samples: dates, matrices, depths and field crew.
• 3Field results and parameters recorded at sampling.
• 4Lab results with methods, detection limits and qualifiers.
• 5Chain of custody and lab batch information.
• 6Well construction and lithology records.
• 7EDD check and load logs showing errors and corrections.
• 8Comparisons against regulatory screening criteria.

How regulatory submissions and privilege change the picture#

Regulatory submissions change the confidentiality picture, not ownership. Many agencies require results to be submitted electronically in a specified EDD format, and records submitted to an agency may become available under public records laws. That can reduce one confidentiality concern while leaving the client's ownership and the consultant's contract duties unchanged.

Privilege can matter more. Some environmental investigations are commissioned through outside counsel to support legal advice or litigation, and the resulting data and communications may be treated as privileged or as attorney work product. Projects run at counsel's direction, under a litigation hold or in an active enforcement matter should be excluded from any reuse.

Client-hosted systems add another layer. When a client runs its own EQuIS Enterprise instance and gives the consultant access, the data sits under the client's systems and access rules, and the consultant's rights are only what the contract grants.

What can a consultant reasonably consider licensing?#

A consultant can reasonably consider licensing its own process records rather than client site data. Those include data management procedures, valid value libraries the firm built, EDD error and correction logs with site details removed, and internal review notes showing how data managers resolved qualifiers, duplicates and reporting limit problems.

These records show expert work in sequence, which counts as human-generated signal and domain expertise in the SourceX Enterprise Data Value Framework, and they carry less privacy burden than site results. Analytical results about a client's property are different: even with names removed, coordinates, dates and contaminant profiles can point back to a specific site, so they are usually excluded.

Illustrative: an environmental consultant reviews its EQuIS holdings#

Illustrative: a fictional environmental consulting firm manages groundwater monitoring for industrial clients in EQuIS Professional, loading lab EDDs after automated checks and capturing field data on tablets. Its data manager and principal want to know what, if anything, the firm controls.

Counsel reads the client master agreements, which assign site data and deliverables to clients and let the firm keep its pre-existing tools; the lab agreements, which cover delivered results but not the labs' raw data; and the EQuIS license, which governs the software. Site results and every counsel-directed project are excluded. The candidate set is the firm's data management procedures, valid value libraries, and EDD error and resolution logs, with site, client and lab identifiers removed.

How SourceX approaches environmental data#

SourceX approaches environmental data by mapping every agreement before any record is considered. In the SourceX five-step transaction, Supply describes systems and record families using metadata only, Rights reads the client, lab and software agreements, and Preparation removes locations and identifiers from anything in scope.

Privileged projects and client site results are excluded by default. The firm approves the scope, and the SourceX Evidence Packet records provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization.