A federal judge Friday sentenced a former laboratory technician for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to three years on probation for falsifying wastewater test data filed with environmental regulators.
Thomas R. Austin, who worked from April 2001 to August 2003 in the lab at Alyeska's oil tanker terminal at Valdez, had pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to making false statements under the federal Clean Water Act.
In addition to probation, U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline ordered Austin to pay a $1,000 fine.
Austin in 2002 "manually modified the analysis performed on a laboratory sample," making it look like the sample had passed quality-control criteria when, in fact, it failed, according to a Friday news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage. The falsified data ultimately reached the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates Alyeska wastewater discharges at Valdez.
Austin, 44, of Valdez, lost his job as a result of his actions, prosecutors said.
Neither Austin nor his attorney, Herbert Viergutz, could be reached for comment Friday evening.
However, in a written statement filed with the court prior to sentencing, Austin admitted he unlawfully manipulated data. Austin wrote that he did it not to deceive the EPA, but "to avoid conflicts and problems with management" at Alyeska.
"The expectations of the laboratory manager ... were that no mistakes were allowed," Austin wrote.
Austin added that he'd tried to do what is right and ethical in his life, but he let concerns about a large salary, a new wife, his declining health due to cerebral palsy, and a desire not to have to move again "overcome my common sense."
Federal court documents available late Friday make no suggestion that Alyeska as a company or its managers did anything wrong.
Alyeska is an Anchorage-based consortium that runs the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the Valdez tanker dock on behalf of five owner energy companies including BP, Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Chevron and Koch.
Alyeska spokesman Mike Heatwole said Friday that company management suspected something was wrong in the lab and conducted an internal investigation that turned up the falsified data.
He said Alyeska took its findings to the EPA and "cooperated fully" with federal officials.
Meantime, Austin was fired, Heatwole said.
The news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said the investigation found that Austin has falsified and changed 102 data samples.
The release added that Alyeska changed lab procedures, and "there was no evidence that the manipulations by Austin impacted the operation of the wastewater plant or resulted in environmental damage."
Heatwole said Austin worked in a complex system in which ballast water drained off tankers arriving in Valdez is cleaned up in a treatment plant, tested and then discharged into the sea. Alyeska has a federal permit for the discharges.
After reading Austin's court statement Friday night, Heatwole said he was unable to provide an immediate response.
However, he said he was unaware of any other disciplinary measures within the company associated with the Austin case.
According the prosecutors, the maximum sentence Austin could have received was two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Daily News reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.
