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The former owner of an environmental testing laboratory in Westford was indicted today for submitting falsified water testing reports to the Department of Environmental Protection for several municipalities, according to authorities. … He is accused of filing false reports for a number of municipalities, including Ashby, Chicopee, Harvard, and Lawrence, authorities said.
( source )

We tip our hats to the folks in the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection responsible for catching Mr. Carlson. It seems as though their organization’s practice of routinely auditing laboratories has paid off.

he DEP had partially decertified Thorstensen Laboratory in August 2007 and March 2008, which prohibited it from conducting several tests on water supplies. The action followed routine on-site inspections by DEP, the statement said. At that time, Carlson told the DEP he would subcontract those tests to other certified labs, the authorities said.

In December 2008, the DEP Laboratory Certification Program conducted an unannounced enforcement inspection and revoked Thorstensen Laboratory’s entire certification to conduct tests on water supplies and wastewater.

A subsequent investigation by the Massachusetts Environmental Crimes Strike Force found that Carlson was not subcontracting out water tests, according to the authorities. Instead, he manipulated the lab results to make them appear as if they had been conducted by certified laboratories, even though the water samples had either not been tested or had been tested at Thorstensen, a decertified laboratory, authorities allege. ( source )

Naturally consumers in the affected area now have doubts about the quality of their drinking water. Some have started asking, “If I had my water tested by Thostensen Laboratories, can I trust the results they gave me?” Honestly, neither we nor anyone outside of that lab can answer that question — and given the fact that authorities have already filed charges, we doubt you will get useful answers out of anyone who works, or now recently worked, at the lab.

How do I know if I have safe drinking water?

We suggest performing on-site water testing with a test kit such as the Water Quality Test Kit, Complete Water Quality Test Kit, WaterSafe All-in-One Test Kit, WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit right away and having a Certified Water Testing Laboratory analyze your water for dangers that at-home drinking water test kits cannot detect.