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The
Columbus Dispatch
www.dispatch.com
Judge scolds Ohio
EPA
Former
coordinator of River Valley case to get his job back
Thursday,
October 5, 2000
Michael
Hawthorne
Dispatch Environment Reporter
In a
scathing rebuke of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
a federal judge has ruled that the agency illegally punished
the coordinator of an investigation into possible contamination
at River Valley Schools near Marion.
The
ruling this week portrays top agency officials as being
more concerned with their media image than with aggressively
pursuing a probe of higher- than-normal rates of leukemia
in Marion.
The
EPA must immediately reinstate Paul Jayko, its former site
coordinator, and pay him for wages and other benefits lost
after he was transferred to the EPA's Bowling Green, Ohio,
office, said Thomas F. Phalen Jr., an administrative law
judge based in Cincinnati.
The
judge ruled that Jayko is qualified for protection under
a federal whistle-blower law. Jayko had written internal
memos critical of the EPA's investigation of potential links
between cancer-causing chemicals dumped in the Marion area
and the number of leukemia cases among graduates of River
Valley High School.
Chemical
waste was dumped at the campus east of Marion for years
during its previous use as a military-supply depot, but
the leukemia cases have not been linked to specific causes.
"It
is clear,'' Phalen wrote, "that OEPA held him (Jayko)
in particular disfavor for reasons that may only be attributed
to his vigorous prosecution of the Marion investigation
. . . while OEPA management wanted to do something graduated
and far less effective.''
In a
statement released by his attorney, Dennis Muchnicki, Jayko
called the ordeal the "worst time of my life.''
"It's
still so hard for me to believe that my superiors could
go so far as to set me up, frame me and destroy my while
life,'' Jayko said. "I just tried to do my job and
tell the truth.''
Chris
Jones, who took over as EPA director after Jayko was transferred,
declined to comment about the decision while the state considers
whether to appeal.
The
EPA accused Jayko of being sarcastic and not being a team
player. He was moved off the Marion investigation after
being suspended for 10 days for drinking two beers before
a public meeting -- punishment that Phalen ruled groundless
and retaliation for the memos Jayko had written.
"We
strongly disagree with the conclusions made by this judge,''
said Carol Hester, an EPA spokeswoman. "We still maintain
Mr. Jayko's claims have no merit.''
Shortly
after the EPA was notified in June 1997 of unusually high
rates of leukemia in Marion, which is 40 miles north of
Columbus, then- Gov. George Voinovich ordered the agency
to "leave no stone unturned'' in its investigation.
Frustrated
about the pace of the probe and under pressure from parents
of River Valley students, Jayko testified that he tried
to "kick-start'' the process with a series of memos
recommending that various air, soil and water tests be conducted
before students returned from summer break that year.
His
superiors didn't sign off on Jayko's recommendations until
shortly before school began. Tests later revealed contamination
under playing fields that have since been closed off with
a chain-link fence.
One
Jayko memo, dated Oct. 15, 1997, took issue with tests of
Marion's drinking water that failed to look for heavy metals,
pesticides and a category of cancer-causing chemicals known
as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
"Management
viewed this as 'making them look foolish, making them look
like they didn't know what they were doing,' '' according
to testimony during Jayko's administrative hearing last
year.
The
EPA later followed many of Jayko's recommendations, but
on July 31, 1998, former EPA Director Donald Schregardus
informed Voinovich that he was moving Jayko off the investigation.
Phalen
ruled that Jayko was punished for criticizing the EPA for
focusing on immediate causes of leukemia instead of studying
long-term sources of contamination.
"Mr.
Jayko knew that this was both disingenuous and in opposition
to what the public was being told about the investigation,''
Phalen wrote.
In addition
to paying back wages, the judge ordered the agency to pay
Jayko's legal fees and to post notices about his reinstatement
on all employee bulletin boards at the EPA's main and district
offices for at least 90 days.
Jayko's
attorney said the back pay could amount to almost $120,000.
Parents
who fought to keep Jayko in Marion welcomed the decision.
"This
was all about politics, no matter what the Ohio EPA says,''
said Jodi Griffith, who took her son out of River Valley
last year. "It was unfair to our community and unfair
to our school. We want and need Paul back.''
An investigation
involving the EPA, the Ohio Department of Health and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues at the site, which
is used daily by about 765 students attending River Valley
High and Middle schools.
State
and school district officials are concerned enough by what
they have learned that they propose relocating the schools.
Local voter approval of a $19.6 million bond issue on Nov.
7 would leverage $24 million in state and federal money
for buildings on a new site and two new elementary schools
to replace aging buildings elsewhere in the district.
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