From our QA Officer:
A QAPP is a Quality Assurance Project Plan.  EPA generally
requires QAPPs now.  If a QAPP, EPA will probably assign a QA
officer to the project, who will guide you with the QAPP.  Each
EPA region has its own version of the form the QAPP should be in (I
have the one for NY if you want a copy).  It is pretty straight-
forward, with most of the attention on chemistry and how you will
ensure quality of the results.  A lot of it can be gleaned from the
protocol, or proposal (e.g., reason for the project, sampling sites,
etc.).  How much time it will take? Not much, generally, but it
depends on how many people (groups) have to review the thing and
how difficult your QA Officer is.

If you want more specific information, e-mail me privately.

Daniel H. Snyder                            Internet
xxxxxx@say.acnatsci.org
Administrative Director                     voice: 215-299-1065
Patrick Center for Environmental Research   FAX: 215-299-1079
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA  19103-1195