BECKLEY -- Trial has been rescheduled for a water quality laboratory employee charged with taking part in a scheme to falsify water pollution testing at coal-mining operations across Southern West Virginia.
John Brewer, 62, will be tried before U.S. District Judge Irene Berger starting on Aug. 8, according to an order entered on Tuesday.
Trial had been scheduled for July 11, but defense lawyer John Wooten said more time was needed to prepare. Brewer has pleaded not guilty.
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.
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.