Almost Stupid, West Virginia: Judge Orders Reinstatement Of Water Test-Faking Laboratory By DEP

[hatrack]

A Kanawha County judge has ordered the state Department of Environmental Protection to comply with an appeals board ruling that reinstated the certification of a water quality laboratory where employees allegedly faked water samples for the coal industry. Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey ruled that the DEP must treat Appalachian Laboratories Inc. “the same as any other laboratory.”

In a nine-page ruling entered Wednesday, Bailey told DEP it could not continue to follow a policy memo that mandated mine operators who submitted sampling data from Appalachian Laboratories would be required to submit additional sampling and analysis performed by a different lab.

Appalachian had sued DEP in circuit court over the policy memo, which DEP issued after the state Environmental Quality Board ordered the agency to temporarily reinstate Appalachian’s lab license until a full hearing on an appeal of its license revocation. That hearing is scheduled for next month.

DEP had revoked the lab’s certification after one of Appalachian’s employees pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of conspiring to violate the federal Clean Water Act by diluting water samples, substituting water he knew to be clean for actual mining discharges, and not keeping water samples at required temperatures.

EDIT

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141126/GZ01/141129409/1419

[RiverLover]

1. Who paid off that judge, and the worker who falsified the water results?

There's a story here.

Corruption needs to be weeded out. But greed seems to always win out.