The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has recently announced that it revoked the license of a water-testing laboratory for alleged misconduct.
A state investigation claimed that the company, Environmental Testing and Research Laboratories Inc. (ETR) of Leominster, repeatedly failed to properly analyze private drinking water samples and report the test results in accordance with its certification and state regulations. Following this, the state moved to revoke the company’s license.
ETR’s decertification follows a comprehensive undercover investigation conducted by MassDEP’s Environmental Strike Force (ESF) and the agency’s Laboratory Certification Program – Division of Environmental Laboratory Sciences (DELS), which was upheld in a final decision by MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg following an appeal and subsequent adjudicatory hearing on the decertification.
“Vigorous, careful and targeted enforcement ensures a level playing field for the overwhelming majority of certified laboratories that comply with state regulations,” said ESF Director Pamela Talbot. “We investigate these kinds of complaints to ensure that consumers can trust that drinking water tested by certified labs is done so in accordance with all state requirements intended to protect the public health.”
“We expect all laboratories certified for the analysis of drinking water to consistently meet all state laboratory certification regulations in order to protect public health, and rigorously investigate and decertify laboratories that intentionally violate certification requirements,” said DELS Director Oscar Pancorbo, Ph.D.
Staff from DELS and ESF began the investigation following numerous complaints from local boards of health and homeowners suspicious of, or confused by, ETRs testing and reporting practices. ETR performed testing and reporting services primarily for owners of private water supplies and held certification from MassDEP’s Laboratory Certification Program for the analysis of drinking water.
The ESF conducted interviews with affected homeowners and board of health officials. The Laboratory Certification Program and ESF then inspected ETR’s laboratory facilities and partnered with a certified third-party to arrange for a series of professionally prepared “double-blind” water samples. ESF investigators, posing as homeowners from various parts of Massachusetts, then sent the spiked water samples to ETR for analysis and reporting of test results.
According to the state, the results delivered by ETR showed that the laboratory had reported the existence of certain bacteria, fungi and chemicals which did not and could not exist in the sterile and spiked samples that undercover investigators had sent for testing. Homeowners receiving such reports from ETR had expressed confusion and concern upon receiving those results. The reports that the undercover ESF investigators received from ETR were very similar to those that alarmed or concerned homeowners and local health officials.
The ruling in the final appeals decision, claimed that ETR violated its Laboratory Certification regulations by:
- Performing careless and inaccurate reporting of analytical measurements;
- Engaging in unfair, deceptive or fraudulent practices;
- Performing, reporting, or failing to report drinking water analyses in a manner that threatened public health; and
- Making false, inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading statements in laboratory reports.
