BECKLEY -- The former manager of a Raleigh County laboratory is expected in court today to be sentenced after he pleaded guilty for his role in what federal prosecutors have described as a scheme to fake water pollution samples for the coal industry.
John Brewer is the second former employee of Appalachian Laboratories to plead guilty, admitting to one count of violating the Clean Water Act's standards for collecting and submitting samples used to monitor whether mining operations comply with their pollution discharge permits.
Brewer faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he appears today before U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in Beckley. Brewer pleaded guilty in October as part of a deal with prosecutors, admitting to one count of falsifying water sampling reports filed with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
John W. Shelton, another former Appalachian Labs employee, was sentenced to 21 months after he agreed to a plea agreement in which he admitted to a charge of conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act. Shelton admitted that he diluted water samples, substituted water he knew to be clean -- taken from what he called a "honeyhole" known to have compliant water in it -- and did not keep water samples refrigerated, as required by state and federal rules.
Brewer admitted that he and other lab employees often would backdate water samples to avoid having to take other samples at a time when they believed those other samples would reveal water quality violations.
Brewer had originally been scheduled for trial last October after being charged in a seven-count indictment that carried a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine. The original indictment charged that Brewer, Shelton "and other employees of Appalachian Labs whose names are known to the grand jury conspired from 2008 through 2013 to tamper with, caused to be tampered with, falsify and render inaccurate" water samples for coal industry operations.
Neither Appalachian Labs nor its owners have been charged, and the state DEP, after briefly suspending the lab's state license, reinstated the operation. DEP spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater said there have been no problems since that recertification.
Under the Clean Water Act, companies with water pollution permits are required to take periodic samples and submit reports to the DEP on whether those samples indicate their operations are in compliance with allowed pollution discharge limits. State and federal agencies take some samples themselves, but the majority of sampling is done by companies, with results filed with the government for its review.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.