An employee of a Raleigh County laboratory has pleaded not guilty to charges that he took part in a scheme to falsify water pollution testing at coal-mining operations across Southern West Virginia.
John Brewer, 62, appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn in Beckley and was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, court records show.
Trial was scheduled for July 11 before U.S. District Judge Irene Berger, but defense lawyer John Wooton asked that the trial be continued.
Wooten cited a large number of records that need to be reviewed by the defense - extensive grand jury testimony, witness statements, emails, receipts, lab testing results, and other documents - and said that prosecutors do not oppose a delay in the trial.
In an order issued Friday, Aboulhosn said that Brewer would be allowed to "travel to Canada on a pre-paid trip" while he is free on bond.
Brewer was charged on May 10 in a federal grand jury indictment accusing him of conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act, mail fraud, and making false statements as part of his work as a manager at Appalachian Laboratories Inc. in Beckley.
Brewer could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine if convicted of all seven counts outlined in the 15-page indictment. Brewer previously testified before a state appeals board that he had done nothing wrong.
A former lab employee, John W. Shelton, is currently in federal prison serving a 21-month sentence after he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in which he admitted faking coal company water quality reports. Shelton had admitted that he diluted water samples, substituted water he knew to be clean for actual mining discharges, and did not keep water samples refrigerated, as required by state and federal rules.
The indictment charging Brewer alleges 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, cause to be tampered with, falsify and render inaccurate water samples required to be taken as part of coal industry water pollution permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The indictment alleges water samples were diluted, that clean samples were substituted for actual field samples, that certain mining discharges were systematically not sampled, and that samples were not properly processed. It also alleges that the U.S. Mail was used to send and deliver invoices for falsified water samples and for false applications for recertification from state regulators, and that Brewer made false statements on those applications.
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 - often by a lab contracted for that purpose - with results filed with the government for its review.
When Shelton's guilty plea was publicized in October 2014, it caused a brief controversy in which DEP suspended the laboratory's state-issued certification to conduct water sampling and analysis, a move that prompted a legal battle before the state Environmental Quality Board and in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.