A Walker County, Ga., man said he was fired by Chattanooga Tank Wash for reporting pollution violations.
James Hays is suing the company in Federal Court.
He said he worked from the company on Pineville Road from July 2008 until his termination last Dec. 17.
The firm cleans commercial pollutants from tanker trucks, it was stated.
The complaint says, "During the summer and fall of 2020, Plaintiff noticed several pretreatment standards violations at the facility. These violations included a leak in the containment wall surrounding the wastewater holding tank and multiple overflows of pollutants – some of which were intentionally caused rather than by accident.
"Plaintiff brought these matters directly to the attention of Rusty Parker, who was the terminal manager. Plaintiff also stressed to Parker that the facility’s wastewater holding tanks were insufficient to handle the capacity of wastewater being discharged into the city’s sewer system. In essence, because of the facility’s insufficient pretreatment equipment, higher levels of pollutants were being discharged into the sewer system. However, Parker did nothing to remedy these violations.
"Seeing no remedies taken, Plaintiff repeated these serious complaints to defendant’s owners – Jay Brady and Jon Ruiter – in October 2020. Plaintiff also complained that Parker was knowingly not complying with pretreatment standards by instructing employees to discharge pollutants directly into the parking lot. In response to these serious complaints, Defendant’s owners indicated that they did not want to hear any further details of the company’s non-compliance with Pretreatment Standards."
The suit says the employee afterward sent whistleblowing emails on Nov. 10, 2020 and again on Dec. 3, 2020 to Rick Tate, pretreatment supervisor for the city of Chattanooga’s Wastewater Department. In these emails, "Plaintiff reported that the facility had experienced several pollutant spills, a leak in the containment wall surrounding the wastewater holding tank, excessive discharge above permit limits, intentional discharge of pollutants into the parking lot, and long-time failure to monitor the flow levels of pollutants. Plaintiff also included photographs and short video clips to support his complaints."
The suit says company officials later learned from the city about his whistleblowing activities.
It says, "On Dec. 17, 2020, Parker intensely questioned Plaintiff about his whistleblowing. Parker repeatedly asked Plaintiff, “What do you know about sending pictures to the City of Chattanooga?” After repeatedly grilling Plaintiff of his knowledge about an internal whistleblower, Parker admitted that the city inspector had revealed Plaintiff as the whistleblower. Parker then told Plaintiff, “We’re going to have to let you go. Violation of company policy. Taking pictures and sending them to the city.
"In the termination meeting, Parker disclosed that he had already discussed Plaintiff’s whistleblowing with the company owners and that they agreed with the decision to fire Plaintiff.”