Employees of DEP-certified lab conspired to violate Clean Water Act

[theHandpuppet]

This article was posted earlier this month but I'm afraid it got lost among all the stories of the recent spill and the legal aftermath. This report is so important, however, I thought I should post it as its own thread. No tinfoil needed to spot this conspiracy but I'll bet you heard nothing of it on the news.

http://appvoices.org/2014/10/09/employees-of-dep-certified-lab-conspired-to-violate-clean-water-act/
Appalachian Voices
Employees of DEP-certified lab conspired to violate Clean Water Act
October 9, 2014

We learned some unsettling news from West Virginia yesterday afternoon. The Charleston Gazette reports that an employee of a state-certified company pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act after he faked compliant water quality samples for coal companies between 2008 and 2013.

John W. Shelton, who worked as a technician and then a field supervisor for Appalachian Labs Inc., a Beckley, W.Va., firm, admitted to diluting water samples taken from mine pollution discharge points with clean water, among other unlawful measures taken, to ensure pollution levels were in compliance with permitted limits. Prosecutors say Appalachian Labs conducts water sampling at more than 100 mine sites in West Virginia, but for now it’s unclear what mine sites or coal companies could be implicated in the case.

As Ken Ward Jr. points out in The Gazette, this crime is a serious cause for concern, since state and federal agencies rely heavily on self-reported data to determine if coal companies are obeying the law. But honestly, while we’re appalled, it is hard to be surprised by this latest discovery. We have some experience with misreporting of water monitoring data that has taken place in Central Appalachia in recent years.

The way this story is coming together suggests a frightening collusion between employees at a lab that maintained certification from DEP. We know from the plea agreement that Shelton did not act alone. Check out the section titled “The Conspiracy to Violate the Clean Water Act” that begins on page 4. But the truly damning language comes in the following section, which states 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 thus encourage and maintain for Appalachian the patronage of [its] customers.” .... MORE at link provided above.

[Hoppy]

1. Did the lab lose its certification?

[theHandpuppet]

2. This is the latest information I found...

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
W.Va. lab appeals revocation of certification
Friday, October 24, 2014 4:04 pm
Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A Raleigh County laboratory is appealing a decision by state environmental regulators to revoke its certification to perform water sampling and analysis after a worker pleaded guilty to tampering.

Appalachian Laboratories Inc. on Thursday asked the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board in Charleston to put the decision by the Department of Environmental Protection on hold pending a hearing...

...Shelton, 47, of Daniels, faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced on Feb. 26 in U.S. District Court in Beckley. Daniels told the court that he and other employees added distilled water to samples to dilute them. The dilution made it appear that the samples were within permissible limits.

Appalachian Laboratories attorney Joseph Jenkins noted Shelton’s actions alleged by federal prosecutors ended in July 2013, while the DEP recertified the lab in August 2014 after a compliance audit. The DEP revocation order occurred Tuesday....

MORE at http://www.bdtonline.com/news/w-va-lab-appeals-revocation-of-certification/article_09aae994-5bb9-11e4-8444-3badd79181dc.html

[theHandpuppet]

3. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident

We have to stop taking for granted that just because water samples have been lab-tested that our waters are safe. With the fracking boom more and more of these labs are grasping for the testing jobs required by the energy companies. Here's another case from PA from 2013:

http://triblive.com/business/headlines/4771394-74/company-dep-lab#axzz3HRSAuhAu
Ross water-testing company loses accreditation over missteps
By Timothy Puko
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013

A local commercial laboratory company agreed to pay a $60,000 fine and give up state accreditation of one of its labs because the Department of Environmental Protection found 50 violations during an April inspection, department officials said on Wednesday.

Microbac Laboratories Inc. had poor quality control at its lab in Baltimore, where it mismanaged how long it held samples and how it double-checked the work of low-level staff, the DEP said. The lab served clients across Pennsylvania testing drinking water, non-drinking water, soils and chemicals, department spokeswoman Lisa Kasianowitz said.

Kasianowitz said she did not know whether there was any risk to the public from problems with drinking water tests. She did not know whose drinking water was tested by the lab and said the company was conducting an audit to determine which tests were affected...

In recent years, the company has been trying to generate more business from the shale gas boom, soliciting landowners to get well water tested, Arnowitt said. It was named as a defendant in a major gas drilling lawsuit last year in Washington County....

Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/4771394-74/company-dep-lab#ixzz3HRTXvy00
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

[theHandpuppet]

4. Despite board ruling, DEP won’t accept lab’s water data

The Charleston Gazette
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Despite board ruling, DEP won’t accept lab’s water data
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said Wednesday his agency will not accept pollution monitoring reports from a Raleigh County laboratory where federal prosecutors allege employees conspired to fake water quality samples, despite an appeals board ruling that temporarily blocks DEP from revoking the lab’s license.

“I cannot accept data from the laboratory for purposes of enforcing the Clean Water Act and issuing permits,” Huffman said.

Huffman said the guilty plea of one Appalachian Laboratories Inc. employee in an ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin creates a “grave situation” in which the credibility of industry self-monitoring of water quality at mining operations that used Appalachian for sample collection and analysis has been called into question.

“Their data is meaningless,” Huffman said. “We don’t want it.”

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141029/GZ01/141029085/1419#sthash.i01Zy1eG.dpuf