The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has suspended a second chemist and stopped water testing at the state lab amid a state investigation into doctored data.
State health officials discovered on Dec. 20 that a second chemist had manipulated quality control data, contributing to errors in Method 200.7, which tests water for certain metals, the agency said in a news release Monday. The laboratory manager then placed the chemist on leave.
As a precautionary measure, CDPHE said it has temporarily suspended water testing in the state laboratory's chemistry program. The agency says it is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine next steps.
There is no evidence of an immediate threat to public health, health officials said.
Public health officials said EPA-certified metal and nitrate testing would be outsourced to commercial, accredited laboratories. Testing for non-EPA methods will be transferred to another CDPHE laboratory. If necessary, further testing will be referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other government laboratories.
“The integrity of our laboratory operations is our top priority,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer of the CDPHE, said in a statement. “We are taking swift and decisive action to address this issue, including a comprehensive assessment of the laboratory’s culture and practices.”
In November, the EPA revoked a testing certification for Colorado's water quality lab after an investigation found that a chemist intentionally ignored protocol in a method to test for trace metals, 9News reported.
Data problems may have impacted up to 3% of the state's 2,000 public water systems, state health officials said at the time.
“As far as EPA knows today, 69 regulated water systems are affected and approximately 20 of those water systems will need to be resampled to confirm that their water still meets federal standards because these specific systems did not have enough additional data to verify that they still.” were in compliance,” EPA Region 8 spokesperson Taylor Gillespie told 9News in November.
A September letter from the EPA to CDPHE, reviewed by the television station, said state health officials found problems reviewing data going back five years. The lab initially identified problems in June 2022, but did not notify the lab manager or EPA and did not take corrective action, the letter said.
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