All about the profit margins .... .... A West Virginia lab technician pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of faking water sample quality tests so that coal mining companies could be guaranteed clean reports to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), reports the Charleston Gazette. John W. Shelton worked for Appalachian Laboratories Inc. (AL), a company certified by DEP to conduct such tests as part of the Clean Water Act. The company conducts tests at more than 100 water sampling locations in the state. Shelton admitted to conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act by diluting water samples, substituting clean water for other samples and not keeping samples refrigerated along with another unnamed AL employee. The criminal charge was filed September 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It alleged that “From 2008 until approximately July 2013, the defendant John W. Shelton knowingly conspired with a person known to the United States Attorney to commit offenses against the United States: that is, to tamper with, cause to be tampered with, falsify and render inaccurate monitoring methods required to be maintained under the Clean Water Act, namely that samples and measurements shall be representative of the monitored activity and that samples to be analyzed for certain pollutants must be preserved at or below six degree Celsius.” Most damningly, the charges stated, “The objects of the conspiracy were to increase the profitability of Appalachian by avoiding certain costs associated with full compliance with the Clean Water Act and to maintain and increase its revenue by providing its customers and the agencies regulating those customers with reports purporting to show that those customers were operating their sites in compliance with the CWA and thereby allow those customers to avoid fines and other costs associated with bringing their operations into compliance with the CWA and thus encourage and maintain for Appalachian the patronage of those customers.” nationofchange.org/2014/10/12/lab-official-pleads-guilty-faking-water-quality-tests-coal-companies/
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:35:41 +0000
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