8/25/99 -- 8:05 PM

Two EPA officials indicted for obstructing justice

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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Two Environmental Protection Agency employees were indicted Wednesday on charges they falsified documents that backed up the agency's legal defense of its decision to let Indian tribes regulate their own water quality.

Marc M. Radell and Claudia Johnson each face fines of $1 million and up to 30 years in prison If convicted in on charges of obstructing justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.

Justice Department officials allege that Radell and Johnson falsified and backdated EPA documents that were required for the agency's 1996 decision to let three tribes regulate water standards on their reservations.

The state of Wisconsin sued over the decision.

The agreements with the tribes - the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa band, the Oneida tribe and the Menominee tribe - were withdrawn. The agency was eventually ordered to pay Wisconsin and other parties about $369,000 in attorney's fees and costs.

Radell is an employee in the agency's Office of Regional Counsel in Philadelphia. Johnson is an employee of the EPA Water Division in Chicago.

EPA spokesman Bill Omohundro declined comment on the content of the charges.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 25, 1999