EPA cleanup underway at illegal bio lab in Reedley

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) From a green garden hose in the back of a building found in December 2022 to federal government officials with the environmental protection agency entering on all sides Tuesday, the saga of the illegal bio lab found in Reedley is coming to a close. "The federal EPA has a contractor on site, where they are looking through the chemicals, determining if they are flammable, toxic, what they are, and that will determine how they are disposed of," said Reedley code enforcement officer Jesalyn Harper, who discovered the lab.

Through court issued warrants and help from county, state, and federal authorities, they learned inside they were misbranding medical devices such as pregnancy and COVID tests. They had refrigerators and freezers with blood and containers labeled as "serum or plasma" and nearly 1,000 mice.

Harper says this chemical cleanup from the EPA is for everyone's safety to prevent exposure to hazardous chemicals. "We have items that are being stored in like a laundry detergent bottle, you open it, and you can tell it's not anything from Tide that's in there, so we do have to go through those and assess them," said Harper.

The majority of the items will be destroyed and burned. Harper says she is grateful for the support because it's not something the city could tackle alone. "It's been interesting as a city code enforcement officer. I never would've thought I would be working with federal authorities or even state authorities," said Harper.

For the people who live in Reedley and also went through the discovery of the lab, Harper adds to be patient as the end is near. "We are dedicated to seeing this all the way through, to carrying it to the finish line, and making sure that Reedley can kind of go back to some relevance of normal life after the illegal lab," said Harper.

Harper says the green garden hose is not going anywhere anytime soon. It is a code violation that will be addressed with the owner. The EPA clean up could take up to two weeks. For news updates, follow Brianna Willis on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram ..