January 05, 2016
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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The District of New Jersey United States Attorney’s Office (“U.S. Attorney”) issued a December 3rd news release stating that it had entered into a settlement with Accutest Laboratories (“AL”) resolving allegations involving U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) standards associated with soil and water analytical services.
The Dayton, New Jersey company is stated to be a provider of environmental analytical services to industrial, engineering/consulting, and governmental clients.
The U.S. Attorney states that the settlement involves allegations that the between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2013 the company failed to follow EPA standards in analyzing certain soil and water samples involving semi-volatile and extraction sampling. It further states that the company did not properly extract samples because:
- It did not perform the required number of shakes for waste water samples.
- It did not wait the required amount of time in between shakes of the samples.
- It did not properly “spike” samples with a known compound as part of the quality control process (which is alleged to possibly effect quality control process in place to ensure the materials and samples were fully extracted).
- The company altered settings on their gas chromatography/mass spectrometry machines and disregarded calibrations protocols.
The settlement agreement assesses a $3 million civil penalty against AL. The company further agrees to “fully comply with the requirements of its certifying bodies regarding notice of allegations and has agreed to notify any of its clients that could have been impacted by the alleged conduct.”
Click here to download a copy of the news release and settlement agreement.
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