USGS finds data fraud, closes chemistry lab

USGS finds data fraud, closes chemistry lab

Alleged misconduct and data manipulation at a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) laboratory may have affected thousands of environmental quality measurements processed between 2008 and 2014, according to the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)."

"The misconduct, which was discovered by USGS management in 2014, involves analyses performed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry by the Inorganic Section of the USGS Energy Geochemistry Laboratory in Lakewood, Colo.

“Some data were manipulated both to correct for calibration failures and to improve results of standard reference materials and unknowns” and raw data were not retained, USGS says.

Although USGS notified affected lab customers, some collaborators, and relevant journals about the misconduct investigation, OIG faulted the agency for taking too long to issue a public notification.

From C&EN, the Chemical and Engineering News

More professional misconduct and data manipulation in our government, this time in an agency whose credibility and reputation is wholly dependent on their work being impartial and accurate. The article isn't specific as to what data needed to be 'improved', or what environmental or other policy might've been affected by this tampering.

A little more from the article: "USGS permanently closed the lab on March 1 and issued a public notification on the lab’s website last month ahead of the OIG report. The lab routinely processed samples as a service for USGS scientists and scientists from other organizations.

“One chemist was principally in charge of operating the mass spectrometer” during the years covered by the inspection, OIG said in its final inspection report." "

As is pointed out in the comments, it looks like they're trying to place blame on a single rogue employee- just like what supposedly happened at the IRS, VA hospitals, GSA and Secret Service.

This comment pretty well sums up my take on it- "The USGS has lost its reputation for quality during the present administration. The year delay in public notification is symtomatic of this decay. One gets the impression that it was the OIG that prompted the notification."

This is no good.

USGS pointing out fraud. Isnt that a bit like the mafia pointing out bank robbers ? Yeah , put the blame on the little guy.

Uh huh... go figure. What data was manipulated, what trace analysis was falsified? Not much mention of that. You guys understand how big a deal this is? People that send samples to 'accredited' labs of suspected pollution, scientists determining if their requests for sample analysis... all suspect now.

A link within link but says basically the same thing.

further

They go on to say the raw data is missing, so no checking back either... convenient. They also seem to blame it on one guy and not the agency which amusingly, is investigating itself. The thing about accredited labs is they always retain samples. Its part of the accreditation process. Like when you assay metals they divide the sample and store both the assay and the pre assay sample together in case of controversy.

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

Hopefully, we all are smart enough to distrust all alphabet agencies when it comes to truth. They wouldn't recognize truth if it walked up and introduced itself.

so if they did a survey for say gold.
and it came back Very very low.
when it should be Very high.
then some one um! buys the land Cheap!
would that not be a very nice scam?

This misconduct will continue until this administration is gone. We have been scammed to death by these bums.

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

So do we blame the science or the scientist ? ....or is it just the scientific method that has the issues with distorting the truth ......1 guy under the bus wont work .somewhere between the road and the tip of the antenna is a bad bad connection ....

Star and flag OP this needs to be a "Top" thread...
The ramifications of this are huge.
Going to ask my old man(ex-USGS employee) his thoughts about this.
Will report back if he has anything interesting to add...

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

So do we blame the science or the scientist ? ....or is it just the scientific method that has the issues with distorting the truth ......1 guy under the bus wont work .somewhere between the road and the tip of the antenna is a bad bad connection ....

You blame the scientist who doctors his data to meet the government's agenda. By doing this they are rewarded by having further funding for their project. When the bucks stop so does their jobs.

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

If USGS cooked the books then throw said book at them. There are many honest climatologists out there and a thermometer doesn't lie. If they wanted more funding they should've asked; but then again if they asked George Dubya and his Rockerfeller buddies they would've told them to give themselves a prostate exam with a cactus.

Burt Rutan is a well known aerospace engineer who designed the civilian space planes. He has a video, albeit a long one, on the web that does a wonderful job explaining global warming. He puts into perspective this whole issue and it's impact for the scientific community.

Google Burt Rutan/global warming.