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Five get probation for tampering with emission devices

WILLIAMSPORT — Five of six participants in a conspiracy a federal judge said “actively and directly poisoned the atmosphere” have received sentences of probation.

U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann on Thursday sentenced the five who admitted tampering with emission devices on 31 heavy-duty diesel trucks used to transport water and wastewater in the Marcellus Shale natural gas fields.

Each had pleaded guilty in 2018 to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Clean Air Act.

Joseph A. Powell, John E. Joseph Jr., Gavin Rexer, Dennis Paulhamus Jr. and Timothy Sweitzer were placed on probation for a year. Paulhamus and Sweitzer were fined $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.

The other three must perform 50 hours of probation. Brann recommended they do so with an organization whose mission benefits the environment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo-Garrison was non-committal on whether the judge should vary downward from the guidelines and impose a non-custodial sentence.

None of the five had a criminal record and the guideline prison range for each was less than a year.

A sixth member of the conspiracy, Brian Mellot of Cumberland, Maryland, pleaded to the same charge and was sentenced in February 2020 to six months in prison.

Brann had cited Mellott’s lengthy but aged record of theft, fraud and deception.

He was an inventory and logistics analyst in Lycoming County at the Linden facility of Rockwell Northeast, a subsidiary of Rockwater Energy Solutions Inc. of Houston.

Rockwell Northeast in April 2020 was fined $2 million for 31 violations of the Clean Air Act.

Select Energy Services Inc., a Texas company that purchased Rockwater in 2017 in a stock deal, paid $2.3 million to the government and agreed to three compliance audits as part of a three-year non-prosecution agreement.

The six individuals admitted conspiring to install equipment that fooled control devices into believing emission systems on the trucks were operating correctly.

The modifications between August 2013 and June 30, 2014, improved horsepower, torque and fuel efficiency, reduced repair costs and maintenance downtime but permitted toxic emissions that violated the Clean Air Act.

Caraballo-Garrison said at Mellot’s sentencing a government expert estimated use of the “defeat devices” resulted in 26 tons of nitrous oxide plus particulate matter being released into the air.

Powell, 34, was general manager of water management for Rockwell supervising facilities in Linden, Hickory and Avella. “I broke the law. What I did was wrong,” he told Brann.

Joseph, 41, was shop manager for Rockwater at Hickory.

Rexer, 32, held the same position at Linden. Suffering from cancer, he apologized for polluting the environment. It was pointed out he will not be able to continue using prescribed marijuana while on probation.

“I did wrong. No question about it,” said Paulhamus, 42, who owns DJ Paulhamus Trucking in Jersey Shore that provided hauling services to Rockwater.

His request to have firearms while on probation was denied. Brann said he was not “an activist judge” and suggested Paulhamus write the president if he wanted to keep his guns.

Sweitzer, 44, admitted passing for state inspection at his Jersey Shore garage trucks with altered emission control devices.

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