Company with fraud history is investigating Los Alamos chromium pollution

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 04:52 PM

A report from the AScribe Newswire today carries the claim of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that "The consulting firm in charge of investigating how toxic chromium from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) contaminated a regional aquifer" is the very same company that previously planted a fraudulent article in a scientific journal which claimed to refute the findings of an earlier study that linked chromium to cancer."

I don't know about you, but I'm reassured that  the U.S. Department of Energy and the Centers for Disease Control seem to be carrying on the fine tradition of FEMA.  Not to mention the crack federal legislators who just gave us the Medicare Prescription Drug program that has so far has kept many seniors from getting those prescription drugs, and has cost many others considerably more than they would have had to spend before that great program took effect.

Does anyone know the date that the United states ceased to be able to do anything competently and above board?

Excerpt:

The consultants are ChemRisk, based in San Francisco, who have a multimillion-dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Energy and Centers for Disease Control to examine all chemical and radioactive releases from the lab (LANL), which develops nuclear weapons and is managed by the University of California and Bechtel Corp. ChemRisk's job is to find and catalog historical documents on chemical and radioactive leaks and discharges, but also to prioritize the health risks of the chemicals detected.

In December, extraordinarily high levels of chromium were found in test wells just north of LANL.
....
The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 23 that in 1997 ChemRisk distorted the data from a Chinese study linking a form of chromium to stomach cancer to publish an article under the original author's byline that reversed the earlier findings. ChemRisk was working for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on the infamous "Erin Brockovich" case, in which residents of Hinkley, Calif., sued PG&E for polluting their drinking water with chromium-6. PG&E paid $333 million to settle the case.
[end excerpt]

Gee, do you think that Los Alamos would have been held responsible for the pollution if good old ChemRisk had completed the investigation before this story broke?