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Lab owner charged with falsifying water test reports

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 9, 2009 08:03 PM

By Jenna Nierstedt, Globe Staff

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.

Michael Carlson, 56, of Westford, who is the former owner of Thorstensen Laboratory Inc., was indicted by a Middlesex grand jury yon 50 counts of making false reports to the DEP, two counts of larceny under $250, and two counts of larceny over $250, said a joint statement from the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Environmental Protection. He is accused of filing false reports for a number of municipalities, including Ashby, Chicopee, Harvard, and Lawrence, authorities said.

The 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.

Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said the city's water commissioners would meet Wednesday to discuss what, if any, role the city would play in the prosecution.

"People have to be able to trust that when they turn on their water faucet, it's to safe to drink and use for other needs," he said, adding that the city does its own daily testing of water from the Quabbin Reservoir. "It's pretty despicable to tamper with the public health like that."

Larceny over $250 carries a possible penalty of up to five years in state prison or two years in a house of correction and a fine no greater than $25,000; larceny under $250 carries up to one year in a house of correction and a fine no greater than $3000; and making false reports carries up to one year in the house of correction and a fine no greater than $1,000.

Carlson will be arraigned in Superior Court at a later date, the statement said. A phone number listed for Carlson was disconnected.