CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — The co-owner of a West Virginia water laboratory on Monday pleaded guilty in federal court to submitting false results for a city’s public drinking water samples that were never tested, prosecutors said.
Tenley Megan Miller reported that she tested water samples sent to her company, Reliance Laboratories Inc., by the city of Martinsburg in May 2021 and found them to be safe. But investigators found that the samples were not tested because Miller’s laboratory equipment was not operational, prosecutors said Monday in a news release.
The city then unwittingly reported the fake results to the state pursuant to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the statement said.
Miller, 42, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty to making a false representation in a matter within the jurisdiction of the EPA. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing.
