Ohio inspector general investigates ODOT District 9 on illegal dumping

The Ohio Inspector General’s Office has investigated District 9 of the Ohio Department of Transportation regarding an illegal dumping into Salt Creek in Vinton County.

According to the inspector general (see http://watchdog.ohio.gov/Portals/0/pdf/investigations/2014-CA00032.pdf), on April 17, 2014, the office received information from Chief Investigator John Shore of the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), Office of Investigative Services (OIS), concerning a suspected incident of illegal dumping of dirt and debris into Salt Creek in western Vinton County near the Ross County line.

Shore reported that on April 7, 8, and 9, 2014, a crew from the ODOT District 9 Ross County maintenance garage was involved in ditch cleaning operations along state Route 327 and U.S. Route 50 in Ross County.

The ODOT District 9 crew disposed of the ditch spoils, which are dirt and debris excavated from roadside drainage ditches, over and along the guardrail at two locations along S.R. 327 inside the Vinton County line. Vinton County is part of ODOT District 10.

On April 9, 2014, the transportation manager assigned to the Vinton County ODOT garage observed the Ross County crew dumping the ditch spoils over the guardrail into Salt Creek. The Vinton County transportation manager asked the ditching crew leader to stop the dumping and notified the District 10 environmental coordinator. It is estimated that approximately 15 to 20 dump truck loads of ditch spoils were discharged into Salt Creek.

On April 17, 2014, Shore reported information concerning an ODOT District 10 transportation manager reporting District 9 ODOT employees for suspected illegal dumping that occurred on April 9, 2014. ODOT had also immediately self-reported the incident to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as required by section 404 of the Clean Water Act, (33 USC Section 1344).

The United States Army Corps of Engineers issued to ODOT a Notice of Violation dated April 17, 2014. The United States Army Corps of Engineers violation notice was also sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).
On April 17, 2014, Chief Investigator Shore and the Office of the Ohio Inspector General contacted BCI Environmental Enforcement Unit Special Agent Supervisor Doug Young.

Young is in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Environmental Crimes Task Force for Ohio. On April 22, 2014, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General met again with Shore and received a package of preliminary investigation information.

On April 23, 2014, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General met with Young and provided him with a copy of all the information received to date. Young advised that the Environmental Crimes Task Force had other pending investigations that involve dumping by ODOT.

On May 2, 2014, BCI Special Agent Kirkpatrick contacted the Office of the Ohio Inspector General to provide an update on the Environmental Crimes Task Force investigative activities.

On May 22, 2014, ODOT Transportation Manager Kendra Thomas was interviewed in a conference room at Ohio Department of Transportation District 9 Headquarters, located in Chillicothe. The interview was conducted by a multi-jurisdictional investigative team.

Thomas stated she has been employed as a transportation manager in District 9 for more than six years. Thomas said that she was not at the S.R. 327 work site on April 9, 2014, and did not have any first-hand knowledge of what had happened. Thomas said she “... heard about it the next day,” explaining that she was told the transportation manager from District 10 confronted the District 9 work crew on April 9, 2014, asking what they were doing.
Thomas said she drove out to the site about three weeks after the incident. She viewed the dump area from the bridge and said she thought, “... they shouldn’t have dumped there because all the dirt would go straight into the water.”

Thomas described the bank as very steep and said, “... it’s not plausible they didn’t know the creek was there.”

Thomas said she had overheard conversations around the District 9 garage after the incident.

She could not be sure who exactly was involved in the conversations, but thought it may have been Jeff Ragland talking about doing “... quick dumps, revving the truck engine to get the truck bed to go up quicker and higher so that dirt dumps faster and farther from the truck bed.”

Thomas heard Ragland was acting as a “spotter” at the dump site. Thomas concluded by saying she believed ODOT Highway Technician 3 Matt Day and Ragland probably knew the most about what had happened that week. On May 22, 2014, ODOT Transportation Administrator and County Manager Mike Darbyshire was interviewed by the multijurisdictional investigative team. Darbyshire stated he had been employed with ODOT for approximately 38 years. He has been a transportation administrator and Ross County manager for Ohio District 9 since March 2008. 

Darbyshire stated he became aware of a problem concerning the dumping of ditch spoils into Salt Creek at approximately 1 p.m. on April 9, 2014, when he received a telephone call from Highway Technician Matt Day. Day was assigned as the crew leader, April 7-9, 2014, for a ditching operation on state route 327 in Ross County.

According to Darbyshire, Day called him on April 9 and began their conversation by stating, “Darby, I really screwed up.” Darbyshire told investigators that Day told him the transportation manager from Vinton County stopped by the S.R. 327 work area and informed him the material his crew was dumping was going into Salt Creek. Darbyshire stated Day told him he immediately stopped work and went to check the site. Once Day checked the site, he told Darbyshire the material the crew had dumped on the April 8 had slid down the bank into the creek.

Darbyshire said Day told him that only one load had been dumped into the creek on the April 9 when the transportation manager from Vinton County had stopped them from dumping. Darbyshire also said Day told him that they had dumped in the area the two previous days.

Darbyshire said Day told him Jeff Ragland was the “spotter” at the dumping site where the material went into the creek. Darbyshire stated the transportation manager from Vinton County who confronted the work crew was David Stiffler from the Vinton County garage.

Darbyshire stated to investigators that he spoke with each District 9 employee involved in the matter on April 11, 2014, and visited the dumping site on S.R. 327 on the morning of April 14, 2014. Darbyshire noted after viewing the dumping site, that he realized the employees had not been truthful with him. 

Darbyshire said once he surveyed the location, “... there was no way they didn’t know that material was going into Salt Creek” and that Ragland should have known. Darbyshire added, “... It is beyond comprehension why he would let that occur. ... I called BS on Ragland’s claim that he didn’t know the material was going into the creek.” 

When asked who was in charge of supervising the work crews in the county, Darbyshire responded that Transportation Manager Bill Pickerrell was responsible for the work plans for the week, plans the daily schedule, and assigns the work crews.
Darbyshire said that he spoke with Matt Day on April 9, 2014, when he returned to the garage around 3:30 p.m., and asked Day how the decision was made to dump material in Vinton County. Darbyshire said Day told him he (Day) and Bill Pickerrell had discussed dumping sites. Darbyshire said that Pickerrell told him that he provided Day with a few suggested dumping spots in Ross County.

Darbyshire added that Day then told him (Darbyshire) that he (Day) informed Pickerrell that he had several dumping locations in Vinton County, just up the road from where they would be ditching. Darbyshire said he discussed Day’s claim with Pickerrell, and Pickerrell indicated Day’s statement was correct. Pickerrell told Darbyshire that Day said the locations in Vinton County needed material and that he (Day) believed he was “doing them a favor.”

Following the investigation, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General finds reasonable cause to believe a wrongful act or omission occurred.

In total, ODOT paid the following remediation and cleanup costs related to this incident: 

• Penalty assessed by the U.S. EPA: $35,000; 
• Fee to pay penalty: $500;
• Contract for cleanup costs: $83,320;
• Temporary real estate easement on private property: $2,500. 

Total: $121,320.

This total does not include the cost of work performed by ODOT District 9 personnel to regrade, seed, mulch and provide gravel to the driveway of the private land because these costs were not tracked by ODOT separately.

RECOMMENDATIONS 

The Office of the Ohio Inspector General makes the following recommendations and asks the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation to respond within 60 days with a plan detailing how the recommendations will be implemented.

The Ohio Department of Transportation should: 

1. Review the actions of ODOT employees Highway Technician 3 J. Matthew Day and Highway Technician 2 Jeffrey Ragland, to determine whether their conduct warrants administrative action. 

2. Review the actions of ODOT employee William D. Pickerrell, to determine whether his conduct warrants administrative action for failure to supervise. 

3. Review ODOT training policies governing the actions of ODOT employees involved in working around waterways and wetland areas and consider whether revisions are in order. 

4. Upon concluding any changes to the policies governing work impacting waterways and wetland areas, consider whether additional training of employees is warranted. 

5. Establish a formal policy to select and evaluate areas for dumping fill material. Maintain an approved list of approved locations in each district environmental office. This investigation has been reviewed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio as well as the Assistant Attorney General for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Environmental Enforcement Unit. Both federal and state officials have declined to seek prosecution.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has entered into a consent agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and has restored the impacted area, and paid a penalty of $35,000.

For the full report, go to http://watchdog.ohio.gov/Portals/0/pdf/investigations/2014-CA00032.pdf.

Other current ODOT investigations

http://watchdog.ohio.gov/Portals/0/pdf/investigations/2014-CA00071.pdf

http://watchdog.ohio.gov/Portals/0/pdf/investigations/2014-CA00047.pdf