Jul. 17--The former environmental and safety manager for a Lehigh County brewery has been charged with violating the federal Clean Air Act by failing to perform routine air emissions tests.

Maurice Lynch also ordered two employees to create false monitoring reports assuring the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that the Diageo North America plant in Upper Macungie Township was complying with federal emissions standards, federal prosecutors allege.

Lynch, 36, was indicted by a grand jury in Philadelphia and charged Tuesday with one count of submitting false Clean Air Act statements, one count of knowingly violating a permit, one count of obstructing an agency proceeding, and aiding and abetting.

If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 12 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. He lives in Lancaster County.

The alleged violations occurred in 2005. In 2007, Diageo sold the plant, visible from Interstate 78 just west of Route 100, to the Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams beer.

Patricia Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia, said Diageo was not involved.

Hartman also said prosecutors believe no harmful pollutants were discharged into the air.

The grand jury found that Lynch failed to perform weekly air emissions monitoring from April 2005 to November 2005. On Nov. 14, 2005, Pennsylvania DEP inspected the plant but reviewed false monitoring reports allegedly written by two employees under Lynch's direction. The false reports stated that the weekly tests had been conducted, prosecutors said.

DEP initiated the investigation but turned it over to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said DEP spokesman Mark Carmon.

DEP fined Diageo $628 in February 2005 for violating the Clean Air Act by failing to pay emissions fees in 2004, according to federal EPA records.

Opened in 1972, the former F&M Schaefer Brewery was sold to the Stroh Brewery Co. in 1981. It was owned by the Pabst Brewing Co. when it closed in 2001. Diageo purchased the brewery that year for $29.8 million but manufactured products other than beer, such as Smirnoff Ice malt liquor, before selling to the Boston Beer Corp. for $55 million in 2007.

The brewery was reopened in 2008.

matthew.birkbeck@mcall.com

610-820-6581

Reporter Christopher Baxter contributed to this story.

-----

To see more of The Morning Call, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mcall.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:DEO, NYSE:SAM,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.