Former Wastewater Employee Fights For Job Back, Claims Illegal Practices

Over allegations that the town of Wilkesboro, NC, was dumping untreated wastewater and falsifying wastewater samples to deceive state environmental authorities, town officials have fired an employee.

The employee, Scott Church, had worked at the Wilkesboro wastewater treatment plant from Oct. 9, 2000 until this past August. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, through his attorneys Church filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the town of Wilkesboro and Town Manager Ken Noland.

Church alleged in the lawsuit that at least twice this year, he witnessed the treatment plant dispose of untreated wastewater into the Yadkin River. Church added that he also “saw plant employees falsify water samples.” The lawsuit said that Noland and others ignored Church’s concerns which led up to his firing on Aug. 26.

According to the Wilkes Journal Patriot, while working as operator in charge of the plant from 2011 to 2015, Church said in the lawsuit that he “continually raised issues about the incapacity of the plant to treat wastewater, given the increased volume of waste that was coming in.”

The lawsuit reads that Church reported to the town’s utilities director that an additional clarifier was needed, and that “more chemicals were being needed due to the incapacity of aging facilities to manage the increased flow.”

Church also stated that three-quarters of the waste was originating from Wilkesboro’s largest employer, Tyson Foods Inc.

“I think what we’re looking at is a small town under enormous pressure to take on the wasteload of Tyson,” he said.

Noland’s attorney John Willardson said in a statement obtained by The Winston-Salem Journal “that Church didn’t make these allegations about illegal dumping and false water samples until after he was fired.”

“Upon hearing those allegations, the town promptly contacted the North Carolina Department of Environmental Resources to request an independent investigation into the practices and procedures of the Wastewater Treatment Plant,” Willardson said in the statement. “The town is committed to assuring that the wastewater treatment plant complies with all applicable state and federal regulations.”

Church is asking for more than $25,000 in “compensatory damages” and that he get his job back. There has been no date for the trial set yet.

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