A York County man was charged Thursday by agents from the Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Protection Section with falsifying monthly waste water reports to the Department of Environmental Protection and allowing unpermitted waste water discharges into the waters of the Commonwealth.

Attorney General Linda Kelly identified the defendant as Todd Nell, 48, 163 Orchard Drive, Hanover, York County. Nell is a certified operator at the Asbury Point sewage treatment plant, which is located in East Manchester Township, York County.

According to the criminal complaint, between April 6 and April 19, 2011, Nell allegedly failed to sample the treatment plant’s effluent for total residual chlorine.

Kelly said that despite never sampling the waste Nell allegedly completed, signed and submitted a discharge monitor report to the Department of Environmental Protection stating the required testing was completed at the plant on a daily basis.

Nell is charged with one count of tampering with public records or identification, one count of unsworn falsifications to authorities and one count of unlawful conduct under Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law.

He will be prosecuted in York County by Chief Deputy Attorney General Glenn Parno of the Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Section.

Kelly thanked the Department of Environmental Protection for their assistance with the investigation.

7/2/2012