Officials At Wilkesboro Deny Dumping Untreated Wastewater
By Peak Johnson
In court papers that were filed last month, Wilkesboro, NC, officials claimed that they did not illegally dump untreated wastewater into the Yadkin River and did not fire an employee over the allegations.
According to the lawsuit, Scott D. Church worked at the town’s wastewater treatment plant from 2000 until August of last year, when he said that town officials had fired him for accusing them of illegally dumping untreated wastewater.
Church also stated that plant employees falsified water samples in an effort to deceive state environmental regulators. Town officials had fired Church soon after.
According to the Wilkes Journal Patriot, while working as the 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.”
According to the Winston-Salem Journal, John Willardson, the town’s attorney, and Richard Sheinis and Erin McNeil Young, private attorneys hired by Wilkesboro, filed court papers in Wilkes Superior Court at the end of 2016, denying many of Church’s accusations.
The attorneys also denied allegations that town officials dumped untreated wastewater into the Yadkin River and disputed when Church was actually released from his position.
Town officials said that Church was fired a day after he had been “confronted by plant supervisors for taking pictures of the wastewater treatment plant with his town-issued cellphone.”
In court papers, “town attorneys said Church was asked to return the cellphone, which Church did the next day but with the phone contents deleted.”
The Winston-Salem Journal reported that town attorneys stated “the town is claiming governmental immunity and that it did not violate Church’s First Amendment rights to free speech when officials fired him.”
No trial date has been set, but Church is seeking more than $25,000 in compensatory damages and is asking for his job back.