AP reported that a worker at a federal laboratory in Denver area, Colorado intentionally manipulated test results for years, possibly tainting research on toxic metals in the Everglades, uranium near the Grand Canyon and coal in Afghanistan, investigators say. The falsified data from a U.S. Geological Survey lab may have affected 24 coal, water and environmental research projects costing a total of $108 million, according to a report released recently by the Interior Department Inspector General.
The agency is not sure why the employee falsified the results of chemical analyses, but it was not for personal gain or any nefarious reason, USGS spokeswoman Anne-Berry Wade said Thursday. A notice on the agency website said the manipulation was done in part to correct calibration failures in the instrument being used, a mass spectrometer. The agency took action against the employee, but Wade declined to say what it was, citing privacy rules. She also would not say whether the employee was still working for USGS or release his name.
Researchers around the world rely on USGS data, and it often shapes laws, regulations and policy. The inspector general report said the bad data from the Colorado lab could erode confidence in the entire agency. USGS said it did not believe the tainted data affected any decisions by lawmakers or regulators.
Any request for a criminal investigation would be made by the inspector general office, Wade said. An inspector general spokeswoman was out of the office Friday and did not immediately return a message. The manipulation occurred between 2008 and 2014 at the USGS Energy Geochemistry Laboratory in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, the inspector general said. The test samples were mostly coal and water.
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