U.S.

Toxic Tests Faked, Feds Say

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 21, 2000 / 4:00 PM EDT / CBS

Thirteen former employees of an environmental testing company were accused of altering lab results that were used to determine safety at hazardous waste sites across the country.

Between January 1994 and December 1997, Intertek Testing Services Environmental Labs Inc. analyzed thousands of projects for governmental and private companies and had billings of $35.7 million, U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins said Thursday.

"In thousands of tests, reports proved to be false and were known by the lab to be false because the lab had failed to properly calibrate the machines," Coggins said.

The defendants altered data to make testing instruments appear to be accurate within the limits required for quality control when they were not, federal prosecutors said.

Although retests have not uncovered any immediate public health hazards, further testing will be difficult because some sites were paved in new construction, Coggins said.

The 30-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to present false, fictitious and fraudulent claims against the United States.

All of the employees worked at the company's lab in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, which stopped operating in 1998.

The lab conducted as many as 250,000 separate analyses of air, soil, liquids, pesticides, explosives and nerve-gas agents as a subcontractor for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Air Force, other government agencies and private consulting firms.

The results were used for making decisions at Superfund sites, Department of Defense facilities and hazardous waste sites, and also for monitoring hazards affecting soil and ground water.

London-based Intertek Testing Services said that tests were indeed irregular, but a reassessment of the data has shown no resulting health or safety risks.

The company said it voluntarily reported irregularities found by its own quality control procedures to the Environmental Protection Agency and that those regulators concur with findings that the tests were not substantially in error.

"We have worked closely with the U.S. government during its investigation," said Richard Nelson, Intertek's chairman and chief executive, in a prepared statement.

"While this employee conduct was unacceptable, we want to emphasize that the EPA has stated it concurs with our findings that those tests were not substantially in error and that none of the tested sites has been found to pose a risk to safety or health," Nelson said.

Intertek noted that the data concerned has been reassessed by outside, independent consultants.

The company said it closed the laboratory where irregularities occurred and sold four other laboratories in its environmental subsidiary by August 1998.