DEQ says Lakeside violating state laws; Swift: “No comment!”

“I have no comment on it.” – Chrysta Swift

In hiring a non-certified wastewater treatment plant operator in 2007, Lakeside Mayor Orville Nelson has put the city of Lakeside in violation of Oregon’s DEQ rules.

What started out as Councilman Rod Schilling’s questioning of the mayor’s hiring practices at the plant, has now been found to be a legitimate matter of concern to the State of Oregon.

It has also led to the new discovery that bringing on Phil Heley, rather than hiring a qualified sewer treatment specialist, has meant that the city has fallen out of compliance with DEQ rules, Lakesideinfo.com has learned.

Lakeside’s new wastewater facility

According to Steve Desmond, Oregon Certification Water Quality Division of the Dept. of Environmental Quality, “anything less than having the ability [of a Class III certified person] to respond on site at any time” is a violation of Oregon Administrative Rules.

DEQ is now investigating Lakeside. The agency could even impose civil fines on the city for Nelson’s rules violation.

When asked by phone about this, city councilwoman Chrysta Swift, personnel director said “I have no comment on it.”

She proceeded to hang up the phone in the middle of a question of whether she was at all concerned about not having a Class III on site.

Currently, according to DEQ, about 1,150 people are certified to operate and supervise wastewater treatment plants in Oregon. About 1,075 persons hold collection system operator certificates in Oregon.

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Heley is not one of them

The two employees at the plant that work under Heley, each have a Class II certification, one step below the Class III level required for one person on site.

But Phil Heley, the current Nelson-hired supervisor, still has no certification to do the job.

That’s the case, despite Nelson having promised the council and public in 2007 that Heley would have a Class I certification approval within one year and that would be guaranteed in written form as a requisite of Heley’s hiring.

The City of Lakeside had a Class III qualified supervisor until, former longtime supervisor Don Bignell was eased out the door, by then new mayor Orville Nelson in 2007.

The job qualifications of requiring a Class III certification for the replacement position were eliminated by Nelson in April 2007 in order to bring Heley on board.

In doing so, Nelson said that Heley would become certified within a year. But no certification test has been taken by Heley to date, it has been confirmed by DEQ.

Meanwhile, the city is using an outside hand, Bob Dillard of North Bend, who does hold a Class IV certification, to visit Lakeside once a month and sign off for the plant.

While Desmond says that having an outside consultant is a helpful thing to do, it doesn’t satisfy DEQ’s rules for the on-site Class III person.

The issue of potential problems at the Lakeside wastewater treatment plant were first brought out in a column in Lakesideinfo.com by Rod Schilling.

Among other things, he questioned the upside down nature of having more qualified employees than their boss.

Nelson was particularly irked that Council President Schilling went public with the information, rather than keeping it private within the circle of the city council. At the next meeting, Schilling was verbally challenged to a fistfight by the 70-plus year old mayor.

Schilling maintains that his foremost obligation is to the voters, not to other council members or the mayor.

Schilling has more recently followed up with questions to DEQ. He was first to find out that the city’s and Nelson’s structure of not having a Class III certified worker on site is a legal violation of DEQ rules.

Steve Nichols from the local Coos Bay DEQ office, told us that he has been directed by his manager to investigate Lakeside’s lack of compliance with DEQ rules.

He said he’s already been in touch with Lakeside and Mayor Nelson about the matter.

Nichols began working at the regional DEQ office in November of 2007 in the role of Water Quality Permitting and Compliance Specialist. He has only visited the Lakeside wastewater facility twice, including an inspection of the new facility around December 2008.

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Mayor privately admits to problem

When he spoke with Mayor Nelson, Nichols said that the mayor acknowledged the problem.

He said the mayor’s solution was to get Heley qualified.

Nichols said that he will determine what it would take for Heley to reach a Class III certification level or even if it would be practical for that to be done in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, DEQ’s Steve Desmond, who is Certification Program Coordinator, told us that the Class III test can be taken right away, but only if the person is within five months of having the qualifying experience that is also necessary for obtaining that level of certification.

And the qualifications for training include a high school diploma or equivalent and as many as eight years of Class II certified experience.

While Heley may not be close to being certified, either of the two current plant employees could more feasibly help bring the plant up to compliance. That could occur  if one of them successfully tested for Class III certification.

Desmond said that DEQ would actually prefer to have a “hands on” day to day operator with Class III certification, especially if it were only one person.

At the last council meeting, Dillard indicated that one of the plant operators may agree to take the Class III test.

But publicly, to date,  Nelson continues to champion Phil Heley. For Heley to become Class III certified, at least within Nelson’s current term of office, however, it may now be impossible.

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Editor’s note: We would like to get Phil Heley and Mayor Nelson on the record to respond to this; however like Swift, neither has indicated any willingness to respond.