Trial of ex-CUC lab manager starts today

The U.S. District Court has set the jury trial of former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. laboratory manager Pedro Q. Babauta beginning today.

Babauta, the husband of incumbent CUC executive director Lorraine Babauta, faces criminal charges for allegedly tampering with drinking water sampling results to conceal the microbiological content in the firm’s water supply.

The charges lodged against the former laboratory manager include conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and four counts of false documents.

The laboratory manager retired from the government sometime in 2003 after the Division of Environmental Quality slapped the CUC with citations over various violations of drinking water regulations, including that on the alleged tampering of water sampling results.

An indictment filed against Babauta in federal court last year alleged that the former laboratory manager conspired with other persons to conceal the true microbiological content of CUC’s public water system on different occasions over a four-year period.

“For the purpose of concealing the presence in the CUC public water system of total coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria in excess of the maximum contaminant levels under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Pedro Q. Babauta…caused CUC to submit materially false and misleading monthly test reports to DEQ,” the indictment stated.

“To achieve this unlawful goal, Babauta reviewed test data that indicated ‘positive’ results for total coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria and selectively changed such results to ‘negative’ on monthly reports submitted to DEQ,” it added.

He said there were some instances when Babauta concealed from the DEQ the results of entire series of samples. The aggregate results of tests on these samples revealed the presence of bacteria in excess of maximum contaminant levels.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Smith enumerated six instances when Babauta allegedly caused CUC to make fraudulent submissions about water sampling results to the DEQ, the local agency that the EPA has delegated responsibility to administer and enforce regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

On June 4, 1999, CUC’s submission falsely represented that all samples had tested negative from the bacteriological tests; the firm’s submission on Dec. 22, 2000 falsely reduced the number of positive results for total coliform from four to two; Babauta caused the CUC to reduce the number of positive results in the firm’s April 17, 2001, submission to DEQ.

The indictment also alleged that Babauta omitted an entire series of samples that showed positive results for bacteria from a monthly report to DEQ on Sept. 4, 2001. Babauta allegedly made similar omissions in reports submitted to the DEQ on Nov. 14, 2002 and March 6, 2003. (John Ravelo)