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9NEWS Investigates first alerted the public about an investigation into manipulation of water quality data by a chemist at the state lab.
GLENDALE, Colo. — A deputy director for the state health department’s water quality lab resigned as they were about to be punished for not acting on information about a chemist who manipulated data, the state medical director told 9NEWS Investigates in an interview Friday.
A managing chemist brought the information to the deputy director when the chemist accused of falsifying data went on a long vacation between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2023, according to an internal report on the data manipulation obtained by 9NEWS Investigates.
9NEWS Investigates was the first to make the situation at the state lab public, after learning the lab had been stripped of its certification to run a test for barium, chromium and copper. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment leadership first learned of the possible data manipulation in February and in August began alerting 69 public water systems whose data had been impacted by the manipulation.
For the first time since the story went public, CDPHE’s medical director sat down for an interview on the topic.
Dr. Ned Colange told 9NEWS Consumer Investigator Steve Staeger that it wouldn’t have been typical process to alert the public after a quality control lapse like this, as no data the department analyzed showed any immediate public health risk.
“The process we would use…is what we followed,” Colange said. “We detected a potential lapse in quality control. We had to investigate it, which required going through thousands of tests by hand and looking at each one to try to determine even what the chemist might have been doing.”
“I think it’s also important to note that we wouldn’t normally do a public notification unless there was an immediate public health threat.”
The director of CDPHE’s lab put the chemist on administrative leave in February pending an investigation into the data manipulation. The chemist, when faced with the results of that investigation, chose to retire from the agency immediately.
Colange said even though the control data for this test has been compromised, he is confident nothing would rise to the level of an acute public health risk.
“I can confidently say that the compounds we’re looking at that are the major ones that are under study are things that the health risks are associated with long term exposure — exposure over, a lifetime,” he said. “At the levels we’re looking at, there were no levels that would raise to the level of an imminent public health risk.”
Colange told 9NEWS Investigates that the lab has hired a consultant to review quality control practices and will focus on a better communication plan inside the lab.
“I think retrospectively, thinking about the response to the lapse in quality control is something we’re going to learn from and move going forward.”
“We are looking at all of our quality control processes because of this event, and we don’t have any evidence that we have problems in other parts of the lab.”
Colange said the department is still reviewing data produced by the chemist dating back to 2020 to determine if this manipulation occurred over a long period of time.
Contact 9NEWS Consumer Investigator Steve Staeger by filling out this form.
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