FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1996                          (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                 
     PRESIDENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING LABORATORY SENTENCED 
          TO 12 MONTHS IN JAIL FOR PROVIDING FALSE DATA

          JUSTICE DEPARTMENT VOWS TO FIGHT GROWING TREND

     WASHINGTON, DC -- Late yesterday, the president of an
environmental testing laboratory based in Jacksonville, Florida
was sentenced to 1 year in prison and an $18,000 fine for
providing false laboratory data to the EPA.  EPA then based their
assessments of water quality in north Florida on those bogus
tests.   

     This case is the first in Florida where an environmental
testing laboratory has been charged with providing falsified data
to the EPA, but it is also part of an increasing trend
nationwide.
  
     In two cases in the last nine months alone, United States v.
James D. Humphrey and the United States v. Eureka Laboratories
Inc., environmental testing laboratories, their director's and/or
responsible employees in Texas and California pleaded guilty to
or were convicted on charges related to providing the EPA with
false laboratory data.  
     
     Also, on February 25, 1994, Don Allen Craven was sentenced
to five years in prison and his company, Craven Laboratories,
fined $15.4 million for falsifying pesticide residue test results
used by the EPA for setting pesticide tolerances in foods and
registering pesticides.
     
     "False water quality assessments undermine our ability to
protect the public health and the environment and we will fight
this alarming trend, swiftly and sternly.", said Lois J.
Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment
and Natural Resources Division.
     
     Attached is a copy of the press release distributed by
United States Attorney's office for the Middle District of
Florida, who prosecuted this case with the Department's
Environmental Crimes Section.
                               ###
96-067