“It’s very disturbing, very disturbing,” said Nueces River Authority Executive Director John Byrum.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A former employee of the Nueces River Authority has been arrested and charged with allegedly tampering with government records,  a state jail felony.

Marisa Juarez is facing at least 10 counts. Documents obtained by 3NEWS show some of the communities impacted include Premont and Driscoll.

“It’s very disturbing, very disturbing,” said Nueces River Authority Executive Director John Byrum, describing his reaction upon learning how a former employee allegedly tampered with water sample documents from various South Texas communities.

Byrum said Juarez did not have the correct certifications needed to collect the samples.

“The tests turned out well. There was no trouble, there was no problem with the tests failing the water quality issues. The issue became one of the, uh, the report that accompanied,” he said.

3NEWS asked Byrum whether Juarez misled the agency about having the qualifications needed for the job. He said they could not comment further due to the ongoing investigation.

“You have to have some training to get the certificate. Different levels of certification require different levels of training and education. In other words, a valid certification before you can take these water samples,” he said.

Byrum said that even though the test results were accurate, the full process must still be followed to avoid problems later on.

“They need to be accurate, they need to tell where the sample was collected, what time it was collected, who collected it and the level of certification that the operator who took the license had,” he said.

Once it was discovered that Juarez was not properly certified, Byrum said she was quickly terminated.

“We put out a notice notifying the people that, you know, that there was an issue with the reports and then we made some corrective actions in our organization. We will start doing a lot more due diligence when we hire people, making sure that certifications are valid,” he said.

According to documents, Juarez’s bond is set at $30,000. Byrum also said the incident will change how employees are onboarded in the future.