Reedley lab building owner to pay over $100K to Fresno Co.
REEDLEY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A settlement agreement of over $100,000 has been reached between the owner of the illegal Reedley lab building and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to cover the money the county spent on the lab, officials announced on Tuesday.
Illegal Reedley Lab: YourCentralValley.com’s complete coverage
Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig says the Board of Supervisors authorized a settlement agreement with the landlord responsible for the illegal Reedley lab location. This comes after Fresno County spent over $150,000 on the illegal Reedley lab.
The County of Fresno is pleased to announce it has reached a settlement agreement with AY-NC, LP, the (“Property Owner”) of 850 I Street, Reedley, CA 93654. The County will receive $124,948.40 from the property owner for the costs of the County’s code enforcement and abatement.
Fresno County statement on Reedley settlement agreement.
EPA removes over 800 bottles of chemicals in Reedley lab cleanup
Magsig says this settlement amount will repay the taxpayers for the money the county had to put out to clean the site.
“I’m very happy. It was an item, it was something that we’ve been dealing with here at the county for a number of months, and so to be able to come to this conclusion with the owner of the building itself, that’s a very positive outcome, that’s a win for us here at the County of Fresno,” said Magsig.
Magsig says this agreement was made with the person who owns the building and not the person indicted in the case. He says the county had to engage local court systems to allow them to go back and remediate the site in April, May, and June of 2023, and the settlement reached on Tuesday was just for the cleaning costs incurred by Fresno County, not for the costs of other organizations that might have cleaned the site as well.
In December 2023, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to implement the Fresno County Infectious Materials Ordinance, which would allow the Public Health Department to go into these private labs every year to make sure they are operating properly.
Magsig says they are working with other city partners across the county to “get them to buy” into what Fresno County has done. He says they would like to have the ability to inspect private laboratories.
“We also are working with Washington and Sacramento because laws need to change both at the state level and federal level when it comes to private laboratories,” he said. “Right now, there is very little regulation. Some of the things that we found at this particular private laboratory were kits that were being relabelled without FDA approval, this private laboratory had mice, it had other viruses on site that they were able to purchase because there was little oversight of this laboratory.”
Magsig says they are looking for action from Congress and the State of California to implement more regulations towards private laboratories and avoid situations like this from happening again.
Magsig says officials in the City of Reedley have been operating quickly, reaching out to Fresno County and federal and state partners. He encourages the public if they see something out of the ordinary, to let their city leaders know.
He says that, although the settlement amount does not cover all the costs, the amount is over $100,000, and he is pleased that the owner was willing to compensate the County of Fresno for the costs related to the illegal lab.
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