Lawsuit Alleges Racist Acts At Waste Plant
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
An African-American business owner is suing a Texas city, alleging that he was prevented from using city-run wastewater treatment services on the same terms as white business owners.
Jacky Jones of JJ Services runs a septic-pumping business and dumps waste at the city treatment center, according to the Austin American-Statesman. He is seeking $241,740 in damages for “lost business” and asking for equal access to the facility, the report said.
“The employees at the Mustang Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant illegally limited Jones’ access to the facility to only one day a week, according to the lawsuit, but the owners of other companies were allowed to dump with no limitations, including several companies that were unlicensed,” the report said.
The lawsuit says, per the report: “Over the course of a two and one half year period, Plaintiff was allowed to dump only 36 times, while his fellow Taylor-based businesses, including Amanda’s Port-o-Potties, dumped approximately 500 times, and B&L Toilets (which also went unlicensed for nine years) approximately 485 times,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit added that facility employees were “highly aggressive, verbally abusive and unprofessional” toward Jones, according to Taylor Press.
Jones’ lawyer, Roger Borgelt, commented on the allegations, per KVUE: "This is the sort of behavior that you thought would have ended back, I don't know 40 or 50 years ago, and it's rather incredible to me that this kind of thing can go on.”
Jones met with a city official about the alleged problem last year, reports said, citing the lawsuit.
“The plant has been cited twice for not following wastewater and environmental regulations of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality,” Taylor Press reported, citing the lawsuit.
A city attorney declined to comment to the Statesman, but noted that he is reviewing the allegations.
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