Ex HydroVac Employee Quits Over Illegal Practices
(FBI Questioning Others Regarding Plant's Environmental Violations)

Chattanooga Fax, Aug. 28, 2000

A HydroVac employee who left the company July 26 over allegations of illegal activity has been denied unemployment compensation.

The company which recently shut down its industrial waste facility now uses its trucks to haul garbage.
James Forester, 33, complained of decrepit trucks with blown tires which were prone to accidents and spilled garbage onto the interstate.

He also claims that untested, possibly hazardous wastes were dumped regularly from HydroVac trucks directly into the Chattanooga sewer, bypassing completely the HydroVac treatment plant.

Forester says HydroVac told the Labor Department that he left after learning that fellow employees earned more than he did. This is not considered a good work-related cause to quit, the D.O.L. memo states.

Forester plans to appeal the denial. Calls to HydroVac owner Bill Foxworth were not returned.

Former HydroVac lab director Ernest Oliver, who appealed his 1990 firing all the way to Washington D.C., was exonerated by Department of Labor Secretary Robert Reich who ordered Foxworth to pay Oliver over $40,000. The order also agreed with Oliver's accusation that HydroVac was dumping hazardous wastes into the Tennessee River.

Oliver told Chattanooga Fax that FBI agents and EPA officials have interviewed him recently regarding environmental violations by HydroVac.

The FBI and EPA criminal divisions are currently investigating, said Oliver. Foxworth is a menace to the health and welfare of the general public. He's been allowed to dump for the past 12 years in violation of EPA and state regulations.

Forester said truckloads of wastes were regularly dumped into the non-hazardous waste facility without ever being tested for hazardous material. When inspectors were waiting to take samples from the trucks, Forester was told by supervisors to dilute the waste by 50 percent with water.

He said during some summer months, it was not unusual for the eight drivers to dump as many as four 5,000 gallon truckloads of unknown wastes directly into the sewer, bypassing the treatment facility.

Forester said he was surprised to hear about toxic elements like copper, mercury and zinc being found at HydroVac. "I didn't know we were hauling that stuff." he said.

Forester also complained about driving trucks with two and three blown tires. When I told my supervisor, he said, "If you don't like it, you can go to your damn house." So that's what I did.

He said a tire blew out once while he was driving and "a pickup truck behind me almost wrecked." He said one tanker was leaking 'purplish oil' all the way from Knoxville to Chattanooga. And drivers from the landfill in Ft. Payne to Chattanooga are losing several pounds of garbage each trip. "It might be a whole 20 pound bag of garbage that blows out." he said.
Forester finally left after continued weighing violations. Regulations forbid loads over 80,000 pounds, but he showed CFax four receipts from the landfill documenting violations, including one dated July 24 where his truck weighed 89,520 pounds.
"I've driven trucks all my life, he said. That's all I've done. But I know right from wrong."

Forester said he called Tommie Graham twice with the Department of Transportation to report the violations, but has not gotten a response for two weeks.