ES wasterwater plant operator charged with three felonies

Michael "Mike" Todd Wegrzyn, 42, was fired last Friday after the city received notice Jan. 7 from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) that the plant was violating its permit by discharging distinctly visible solids and floating grease, turning off critical equipment, and failing to report the noncompliance as required by law.

"We are not going to put up with that at all," said Mayor Dani Joy. "We do not dump things in the creek. That is not acceptable. It will not be tolerated. The guy is fired."

Friday, Joy sent Public Works Director Dwayne Allen, accompanied by a police officer, to fire Wegrzyn.

City officials were stunned by the huge setback at a sewer plant that had undergone millions in renovations with new Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBR) installed nearly a year ago. Voters approved a $2.1 million bond issue and refinancing of another $1.9 million in bonds in August 2007 for the sewer plant. A nine percent increase in water and sewer rates was also approved.

After being out of compliance with its water pollution permit for years, great progress had been made. The city was meeting permits limits and had even received praise from the ADEQ.

"Testing through November was all good," Joy said. "What happened in the past month and a half, I don't know. The operator had a Wastewater Class IV license. I'm not sure why anyone would think they could do that and get by with it."

Graphic evidence

The letter from ADEQ to the city contained photographs of sewage sludge spilled within the plant flowing into Leatherwood Creek, and showed vital equipment at the plant, such as the plant headworks, filled with grit and non-functioning. The effluent flow totalizer was turned off. One bank of UV sterilizer lights was turned off.

"Upon entering the treatment plant site, a large volume of spilled sludge was observed flowing to the creek," states the ADEQ letter. "The discharge of sludge has been occurring for some time and the noncompliance has not been reported or addressed."

Gray colored sludge can be seen in Leatherwood Creek from the plant to at least one mile downstream. If the sludge isn't cleaned up before the next big rain, it will flush on down the creek.

The ADEQ inspection letter said the city must take immediate action to correct the violations of the federal Clean Water Act and Arkansas pollution laws.

The buck stops here

"ADEQ called and said, 'Hey, you have problems down there'," Allen said. "I said, 'No, how can that be?' I was shocked. The ADEQ inspector was shocked. I'll accept responsibility. Ultimately it comes back on my shoulders.

"We are sick about this. It's horrible. The amount of sludge in the creek was shocking. This is something that never should have happened. Right now the main thing is to get this straightened out and in compliance. In the future, we will provide more oversight."

Allen, who has a Wastewater Class IV license, is personally overseeing operation of the plant each day until a new plant operator can be hired. He is working to get equipment repaired at the plant, and investigating cleanup actions such as putting friendly enzymes into the creek to eat the sewer sludge that escaped the plant.

"I am consulting with an engineering firm about other cleanup options and how to prevent the problems from occurring again," Allen said. "He let the plant go down. Things were busted everywhere. Equipment that broke down was not repaired and the supervisor didn't tell anyone about the problems. We are trying to get the facts to see if this was done purposefully. It may be things got away from him and he was afraid to ask for help.

'Heck of a job'

"I thought I had the right guy here running things. He seemed to have a passion for the place. He said, 'When we get there, we will win awards.' He talked about landscaping the plant. He said he was fighting to stop the problems, but he didn't report them as required by the laws. Proper procedures weren't followed. He knew the permit was being violated and told no one. Some equipment was turned off. Why? He was breaking the permit by not having the equipment on. We were well on our way. Now we have had a heck of a setback."

The plant was in trouble before the cold weather hit. Having vital equipment broken and turned off exacerbated problems caused by the cold weather. Pipes burst that would have been okay had the plant been operating.

"When cold weather hit, it was suicide," Allen said.

Allen said that prior to the problems, for the first time ever Eureka Springs was meeting permit limits.

"We were removing more contaminants than ever," Allen said. "ADEQ was proud of us. We were building some trust with the downstream residents. It will hurt our reputation. Now we have to repair our relationship with the ADEQ and our citizens. We have a chore in front of us, but we'll get there. This is something the city and mayor take very seriously. I will be down here daily until we have someone to take it over. No matter what, we have to make sure it doesn't happen again. Once we get back on track, we are going to stay there."

A criminal offense?

ADEQ could fine the city for violating the permit. And failure to report permit violations is considered an even more serious offense since regulatory officials rely on self-reporting to enforce pollution limits. Failure to report violations of permit limits can be punishable as a criminal offense.

Allen admits the city broke the law, but said he hopes ADEQ realizes it was the fault of the plant operator. Perhaps the operator feared the cost of repairs weren't in the budget. But to meet a permit, Allen said they city would have done whatever was necessary to fund the repairs. "We must meet the permit even if we have to borrow money," he said.

Other employees at the plant knew about the problems, and initially didn't say anything because Wegrzyn said he had permission to turn off the equipment.

"He told the other employees he had the authority to do it, and the other employees feared being fired if they reported what was going on," Allen said.

Paralyzed by fear

In a Jan. 14 letter to ADEQ, Allen wrote, "The operators came to me, as they were the ones who had alerted ADEQ with evidence their supervisor had knowingly and perhaps intentionally discharged bio-solids and had shut down our effluent measurements, in an attempt to conceal his actions. If they had informed me, as their job requires, we could of had stopped this sooner. They feared they would lose their job, but ultimately did the right thing.

"Now lines are frozen and several broken, but sludge had been decanted before the cold weather. I accept responsibility for not being on-site and for placing too much trust in my supervisor. We are walking Leatherwood, looking for any solids and are using environmentally friendly enzymes to help consume solids in the water. I am bringing in engineers and have consulted an environmental firm to see if they could help with the cleanup. I just hope this will not destroy the progress and the trust we were building with the community and your department."

As of Thursday morning, Wegrzyn had not made the $50,000 bond set by Circuit Judge Kent Crow and was being held in the Carroll County Detention Center.