CUC water lab gets full certification

The controversial Commonwealth Utilities Corp. water laboratory has received full certification from the Division of Environmental Quality.

The certification will allow the water laboratory to analyze the quality of drinking water provided to the community.

According to DEQ director John I. Castro, the certification will remain in effect for three years unless the laboratory fails to successfully analyze a proficiency testing sample or fails to report proficiency testing results to DEQ within one workweek of receipt, or unless falsification of data or major changes occur in the laboratory personnel or facilities.

CUC’s water laboratory in Sadog Tasi was put in the spotlight in 2003 because of its involvement in falsification of bacteria data report, invalid sampling, and false reporting.

These offenses led to DEQ’s decision to revoke the laboratory’s permit and to the trial of former laboratory manager Pete Babauta.

A federal jury found Babauta guilty on two counts of submitting false documents in June this year. He was later sentenced to one year in prison and was fined $5,000 for submitting falsified documents to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

However, a recent audit conducted by DEQ laboratory certification officers showed that the water laboratory had met all certification requirements, particularly those relating to personnel, facilities, equipment and instruments specification, general practices and analytical methodology, and quality assurance and data reporting.

DEQ noted that in April 2005, new DEQ laboratory manager Heidi Yelin had attended an 80-hour training at the DEQ laboratory facility. The training provided her an accumulative knowledge of the microbiology analytical techniques as well as detailed microbiological procedures required for the analysis of drinking water.

The environmental agency added that since the training, the water lab had been consistently performing in-house training on an analytical method called Colilert.

DEQ officers also found during inspection that the water lab was “clean, organized, and well equipped.”

However, DEQ raised some concerns regarding the laboratory equipment and instruments specification.

For instance, the pH meter reportedly did not respond properly when technicians attempted to establish slope reading during calibration. The water lab should determine the cause for the malfunction and request for service or repair, or replace the instrument, DEQ said.

The water lab was also urged to calibrate its balance weights and thermometers regularly. The temperature record, DEQ added, should include comments as to why temperature was out of range at the time the reading was taken, and to include steps taken to correct the problem.

In the area of laboratory practices and analytical methodology, DEQ said the water lab should spot check each batch of dry glassware used for microbial analysis and record the color reaction.

DEQ also said that the water lab should be certified for another method if the Colilert method could not be used for some drinking samples. The agency reported that one water sample had been known to exhibit an atypical color change (greenish black) in the absence of a yellow color.