Former NYC DEP employee pleads guilty

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FYI – From the 9/14/2006 New York Times.


September 14, 2006

Water Monitor Falsified Reports
By ANTHONY DePALMA

A former New York City worker responsible for monitoring the water supply pleaded guilty yesterday to falsifying important records about the purity of the drinking water.

The worker, Daniel Storms, 32, admitted in Federal District Court in White Plains that in February 2005 he failed to complete all the required checks before recording the level of turbidity, a measure of cloudiness in the water. He was on duty at the time at the Catskill Lower Effluent Chamber, a point in Westchester County through which much of the city’s upstate water supply must pass.

Mr. Storms is the second city employee in recent years to plead guilty to making false entries in water quality records. In August 2005, Dieter Greenfeld, 63, admitted in federal court that he made false logbook entries that year while monitoring for turbidity. He was eventually sentenced to two years’ probation.

Mr. Storms faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Both men were employees of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the city’s water system, the largest system in the country. In a statement, the department said it would “discipline aggressively any employee who threatens the integrity of the agency’s extensive water monitoring program.”

The department has been operating under the scrutiny of a special federal monitor since 2001, when it pleaded guilty to violating federal clean-water laws.

Federal officials require New York’s water to be monitored for turbidity every four hours, around the clock. Although turbidity does not pose a health problem, it can interfere with disinfection. Department officials said the record tampering did not compromise the purity of the city’s drinking water.

Federal environmental officials review turbidity records to determine whether New York is meeting water quality standards. If not, the city could be forced to build a multibillion-dollar filtration system.

New York is one of only a handful of major cities in the United States that do not filter drinking water.

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