NJ Environmental Testing Lab Settles Alleged Violations with DOJ and NJDEP

NJ Environmental Testing Lab Settles Alleged Violations with DOJ and NJDEP

One of New Jersey’s largest environmental testing laboratories, Accutest Laboratories, Inc. of Dayton, New Jersey, recently entered into settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) for Accutest’s alleged failure to properly follow EPA and NJDEP environmental testing requirements and protocols.  Specifically, the DOJ and NJDEP alleged that Accutest, between January 1, 2011 and December 13, 2013:

1. did not properly extract samples because it did not perform the required number of shakes for water samples;
2. did not wait the required amount of time between shakes of the samples;
3. did not properly spike samples with a known compound as part of the quality control process,
4. performed analyses beyond the scope of its certification, and
5. altered the settings of its gas chromatography/mass spectrometry machines and disregarded calibration protocols.

As part of the settlements, Accutest is paying $3 million to the U.S. Department of Justice and $2 million to NJDEP. Under the settlements, Accutest is also required to notify its affected New Jersey clients of the alleged extraction and certification violations within 30 days, many of whom are expected to include environmental consulting firms.

How Does this Affect My Company:

If your company relied upon test results that were the subject of the settlements, we suggest that you ask your environmental consultant or environmental counsel to advise whether investigations at your site(s) or project(s) were affected and whether you have any regulatory or contractual exposure relating to the use of that data. We stand ready to discuss any questions you may have concerning this situation.

If you have any questions regarding this client alert or would like copies of the U.S. Department of Justice and NJDEP Settlement Agreements, please contact John M. Scagnelli or Todd W. Terhune, Partners and members of the Environmental and Land Use Law Group.