Challenging Careers
Partners testing the waters throughout Hudson Valley, region
By CATHERINE PORTMAN-LAUX

Spurning potential investors who would wind up running their company, Andrew Carmichael and Beverly Preast opted to scrape along the hard way, borrowing from friends and family, mortgaging homes ­ anything to maintain control while they got pCi Labs Inc. in Orangeburg running.

Today the pair claim ownership of one of three privately owned radiological labs of its kind in New York state and the only one in the Hudson Valley region.

The two partners met while employed by a radiochemistry lab which relocated to Tennessee. Carmichael had never worked for any other company, but he did not want to relocate. He had the vision of a new company and is 51 percent owner.

The two received encouragement upon hearing of a bill up for a vote in New Jersey called the Private Well Testing Act requiring any home being sold or refinanced, as well as schools and other public facilities, to have drinking water tested. Similar bills were pending in New York state.

With the help of the Small Business Development Center, Carmichael set up the business in the year 2000. Preast worked in part-time salaried jobs to keep the undertaking going, coming in as a 49 percent partner in 2003. “Andy is the rainmaker. He made it happen,” she remarked.

The partners employ four other persons, two of them technical directors with Ph.D. degrees who oversee radiochemistry and counting room data integrity operations.

The lab analyzes water samples for gross alpha, gross beta, radium-226, radium-228, total radium and total uranium. Currently accredited in New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire, the company plans to expand elsewhere. Their clients include commercial chemistry labs, engineering firms, private and public water purveyors and private home owners.

“Radioactivity is natural,” Preast said. “One of the natural elements is uranium, which has been around for billions of years. The majority of radioactivity in drinking water is natural and below the Environmental Protection Agency’s permissible level. Radon gas is also naturally occurring. If the level of radon is high, a mitigation system can be installed to allow its removal.”

The partners find that radiochemistry is not widely taught. “There is a shortage of trained people and training facilities,” Preast said.

Carmichael was born in Brooklyn, raised in Dumont, N. J., and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology, minoring in physics, at Upsala College in East Orange, N. J. His partner was born in Chimney Corner, W. Va., and raised in Sanford, N.C. She was 45 years old and had raised a family when she entered Berkeley College in West Paterson, N. J., earning an Associate in Applied Science degree in business management with a 3.8 average. Upon graduation she was hired as quality control manager at the firm where she met Carmichael.

The best day in the pair’s business life was the first sample they ever received from a client, brought to them on a Valentine’s Day.

The worst day was equally memorable. Arriving on a Monday to begin their usual six-day week, they found a baby groundhog huddled up after knocking over glassware and stepping on a keyboard that stopped the system from analyzing samples.

“We had to call 10 clients and request new samples,” Carmichael grimaces. “But, we didn’t lose any. A couple thought it was funny.”

Then there was the breakdown of the computer that operates the counting equipment. The two had to stay up all night to do counting manually.

Future groundhog visitors may be more cautious lest they find themselves confronted by Madison, a golden retriever who has been designated lab mascot.

 

 

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