FORMER NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL
FELONY OF MAKING FALSE RECORDS RELATING
TO DRINKING WATER MONITORING

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DANIEL STORMS, 32, a former employee of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), pleaded guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge MARK D. FOX in federal court in White Plains, New York, to a felony charge of making false entries in DEP records relating to monitoring of drinking water while he was a DEP employee.

In pleading guilty, STORMS admitted that on February 9, 2005, he made false entries in a DEP log book relating to monitoring of drinking water for turbidity, which is a measure of cloudiness. STORMS admitted that on that day, while employed by DEP, he went to a DEP facility known as the Catskill Lower Effluent Chamber (CLEC), where he was supposed to perform a turbidity monitoring procedure. STORMS admitted that he did not perform all of the processes included in that procedure and that he made numerical entries in a DEP log book that made it appear as though he had performed the entire procedure.

The federal criminal charge to which STORMS pleaded guilty was contained in an Information, also filed today. According to the Information, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required DEP to monitor water for turbidity every day of the year at multiple locations, including the CLEC. Also according to the Information, employees of DEP were assigned
to perform turbidity monitoring in the CLEC at four-hour intervals throughout each day and to make a record of the results of that monitoring in a log book maintained in the CLEC.

The Information states that the monitoring procedure included three processes, including the performance of a calibration check, to ensure that the equipment used for analyzing water samples was properly calibrated, the taking and analysis of a water sample, and the comparison of the results of that water sample with a reading provided by an automatic testing device.
Each of these processes yielded a numerical result. Pages in the turbidity log book contained separate columns for recording the results of each of these processes and the initials of the DEP employee who performed them. In pleading guilty, STORMS admitted that on February 9, 2005, he made entries in the log book purporting to reflect numerical results yielded by each process, when in fact he had not performed all of them.

According to the Information, EPA personnel regularly inspected the log book as part of a periodic review of DEP’s turbidity monitoring in the CLEC.

According to the Information, EPA has found that although turbidity itself has no health effects, turbidity can be harmful in other ways, including by interfering with disinfection and providing a medium for microbial growth. In addition, according to the Information, EPA has found that turbidity can indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms, including bacteria, viruses,
and parasites, and that increased turbidity levels can contribute to the development of certain potentially harmful disinfection byproducts.

Sentencing in scheduled for December 11, 2006, before United States District Judge CHARLES L. BRIEANT in federal court in White Plains. STORMS faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, the New York City Department of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection with this investigation. Mr. GARCIA said that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorney ANNE C. RYAN is in charge of the prosecution.