East Syracuse, NY -- When Tony Scala pulled into the employee parking lot Tuesday morning he was greeted by some unexpected visitors. “There was like 10-15 cars lined up. All black, SUV-type cars. A couple of them said EPA on them,” said Scala, who is the owner of Upstate Laboratories in East Syracuse. About 50 EPA officers were at the...
East Syracuse, NY -- When Tony Scala pulled into the employee parking lot Tuesday morning he was greeted by some unexpected visitors.
“There was like 10-15 cars lined up. All black, SUV-type cars. A couple of them said EPA on them,” said Scala, who is the owner of Upstate Laboratories in East Syracuse.
About 50 EPA officers were at the business to serve a search warrant in response to complaints of data fraud and illegal waste disposal, Scala said. The type of waste includes any flammable chemicals, acids and metals.
The EPA officers questioned some of the laboratory’s 40 employees, took waste samples and analyzed laboratory data files to make sure figures were not manipulated or made up, he said. The officers left the premises after 10 p.m.
This is the first time that an investigation of this magnitude had been conducted in the company’s 26-year history, he said.
“If you walked into your business and you had all these gun-toting, armor-plated, vest-wearing people standing there wanting to question you, you get a little nervous,” Scala said. “They came in here, they were very professional. They did their job. I have no complaints with what they did.”
The laboratory does environmental testing of air, water and soil. It also receives a large portion of its business from analyzing evidence used in police investigations and court cases, Scala said.
“Over 90 percent of what we do here is called CLP (contract laboratory protocol) deliverables. That’s courtroom-ready data that we have to supply to our clients,” he said.
Scala believes that the complaint came from a disgruntled female junior chemist who was fired in July. She had been working at the laboratory for about three years, Scala said.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had an employee do something like that,” Scala said. “The first thing that these people do is, when they can’t get a job, is sit back and say, ‘Jeez, I can’t get a job. I hate that company’ and they go out of that way to screw that company.”
Scala said the data were correct and the company followed proper waste removal procedures. The EPA would not deny or confirm.
“We have a standing policy with ongoing investigations where we really can’t say a whole lot,” said Elias Rodriguez, public information officer with the EPA. “I can certainly verify that agents from EPA were on the premises and executed a search warrant in relation to an ongoing investigation at the facility.”
Contact Fernando Alfonso at falfonso@syracuse.com