A Green River woman accused of falsifying bacteriological reports sent to the Environmental Protection Agency pleaded not guilty to five felony forgery charges.
Margaret R. Jones appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at an arraignment to five felony forgery counts.
If found guilty of all five counts, Jones could face a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and a maximum fine of $50,000.
According to court documents, in April 2014 a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s deputy met with Tara Donn with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Donn told the officer there was an investigation regarding Clearview Improvement Service District in Sweetwater County because it failed to send in monthly bacteriological reports for water tests. The officer was told the Supervisor of District Operations of CISD is Margaret Jones and has been the supervisor since July of 2013 and prior to that she began working as a clerk in February of 2012. Jones started taking drinking-water samples and filling out monthly EPA sample forms in July of 2012.
Tests of the CISD system are required to be done once a month for Coliform. Mild symptoms of coliform diseases are vomiting, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. E.Coli, which can be present in coliform, can kill sensitive groups, including elderly and young children. Results of the water tests are to be sent to the EPA pursuant to Title 42 United States Code, the Safe Drinking Water Act. The SDWA is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans’ drinking water. Under SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities and water suppliers who implement those standards.
An EPA investigation claimed Jones issued five fraudulent bacteriological reports, dating Dec. 2, 2012, Feb. 5, 2013, March 2, 2013, Dec. 20, 2013 and Jan. 23, 2014.
On April 30, 2014, EPA special agent Donn and Colorado Attorney General’s Officer investigator Troy Arnold met with Jones. During that recorded interview, Jones allegedly admitted to falsifying documents.
Donn advised Jones that for these five bacteriological reports on water samples there were a number of reasons why they appeared fraudulent. Donn told Jones she knew what kind of pressure she was under and this was her time to explain. “They’re not real,” Jones allegedly replied.
Donn asked Jones to go over the alleged fraudulent documents with her; and Jones agreed to.
For the Dec. 2, 2012, report Jones allegedly took the Oct. 2, 2012, report and changed the date at the top to Dec. 2, 2012.
For the Feb. 5, 2013, report Jones said she took water samples to the lab, but the samples were never tested so she put the report into her file without the lab section being completed. When the EPA called and Jones discovered the samples were not analyzed she allegedly completed the form, but she could not remember how she did so. The sample number given was assigned to another water district.
For the March 2, 2013, report Jones allegedly wrote a date and time received by the lab and a sample ID number. She also filled out the lab information.
For the Dec. 20, 2013, report Jones allegedly took an existing form and filled out the top portion. To complete the date and time received by the lab, Jones allegedly looked at sample reports from around the same date and guessed at what the next sample number would be in the sequence.
For the Jan. 23, 2014, report Jones allegedly used the previous year’s report as a template and changed the date. She also allegedly changed the sample ID number.
Jones claims she did take the water samples for all of these dates, but she didn’t deliver them to the lab, so she just threw them away. She allegedly made up some false sample reports after the EPA contacted her about the missing samples.
She allegedly pulled sample reports out of her file and completed the information, tore off the two top copies of the form and threw them away. The alleged fraudulent forms were then sent to the EPA purported to be related to the water samples tested by the Sweetwater County Health Department, when in fact the samples were not tested at all.
When Jones received a letter from the EPA detailing the missing samples, she put them in a file to deal with them later. When she received more EPA letters, she knew what they were regarding and didn’t even open them.
When Donn showed Jones two envelopes postmarked March 11, 2014, and March 19, 2014, that were mailed to Olive Hofstader of the EPA’s Water Technical Enforcement Office, Jones said it was her handwriting on them and she had mailed them. She also told Donn that she also emailed alleged falsified reports to Hofstader.
Donn asked Jones why she thought it was better to create five false reports instead of just telling Hofstader that the samples was taken, but she couldn’t get them to the lab because of everything she was dealing with. Jones said the improvement district were in enough trouble as it was and she didn’t understand the repercussions of the EPA Administrative Orders.
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