A recent meeting between these two writers and county officials led to little more than squabbling over minor details in our original story about sewage spills in Mecklenburg County (“Crapshoot” by Servatius, April 10). A month after the “Crapshoot” story documented that 12 million gallons of raw sewage was spilled by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities in 815 separate spills over the last three years, county environmental bureaucrats charged with policing sewage spills for the state are apparently still in denial of the seriousness of the situation.
Included in those spills, which occurred between 1999 and 2001, were many that poured into creeks and streams that run through subdivisions, backyards and parks, places where children could and likely have come in contact with the water.
Despite that, NCDENR, the agency that is supposed to enforce state guidelines governing sewage spills, did not fine CMU for a single one of the 815 spills, all of which were investigated by environmental hygienists with the Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program (MCWQP), the county department directed by the state to contain, control and correct situations involving potential contamination of ground and surface waters.
After the article was published, a 10-page memo signed by County Manger Harry Jones described the CL article as “rife with inaccuracies and incorrect assumptions.” The memo, which was not sent to CL, was widely circulated among city and county elected officials, as well as members of the state legislature.
One problem. The “inaccuracies” listed in the memo either were not in the article, were twisted versions of what CL had accurately reported, or were brief editorials about how the article could have more favorably reflected upon MCWQP. County water quality staff authored the memo, but County Manager Harry Jones also signed his name to it. CL has attempted to schedule a meeting with Jones as we are concerned that he may not understand the issues involved or how the county department he oversees is actually performing at documenting sewage spills.
After first agreeing to a meeting and then canceling it, Jones has ignored calls from CL requesting a meeting to discuss the issue. In the meantime, at least three more sewage spills have made their way into the county’s waters.
On May 8, CL met with Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program staff and no less than three public relations people. Since we had already responded to the county’s lengthy memo, we assumed we would be presented with rebuttals to our responses. We were wrong. Proceeding as if our responses had never been written, county staff essentially repeated the same complaints about details of our original article that had been distributed in their memo.
More troubling than this, however, was the arrogance and condescension displayed by the county PR staff. County PR honcho John McGillicuddy and county spokesperson Angela Shannon both told CL that, from the county’s viewpoint, the meeting was being held to determine whether CL would act “responsibly” and “correct” parts of our story. This was, they said, to determine whether CL could be considered responsible enough to be given information the next time we decide to delve into issues of public policy (we’re paraphrasing here) — the implication being “what’s an entertainment paper doing looking into our dirty laundry?”
Besides the obvious potential issue of county employees refusing to hand over information that’s part of the public record, the veiled threat of a cut-off of cooperation is an astonishing display of hubris (not to say a cheesy attempt at intimidation) by folks who are essentially public servants. During the meeting, CL‘s editor couldn’t help but reflect on how seldom local government officials are seriously challenged by the timid local news establishment.
Some of the accusations county staff hurled at CL were frankly bizarre. For instance, Shannon claimed that our original article was contradictory because it said that the 815 raw sewage spills went unfined and largely ignored by the state, while it also claimed that one spill actually had been fined. In fact, the article did not say that a fine was levied against the spiller. It said that MCWQP staff wrote a letter to the state suggesting a fine, but that the state refused to levy it. It was apparent that Shannon had not read the section in question in its entirety before launching her accusations.
Shannon also claimed that CL inaccurately reported that a half-million gallon spill to McAlpine Creek had been overflowing for three days before the environmental hygienist from MCWQP responded to the spill. The fact is this: the report by MCWQP environmentalist Stephen J. Jadlocki documented that neighbors reported that the creek had smelled of sewage since July 14, 1999, and that MCWQP staff arrived at the scene on July 16 after a call from Morning Dale drive resident Patrick Carrigan. We double-checked this fact, but what the report says has not changed. Let’s see, Ms. Shannon: July 14, July 15, July 16. Seems like three days to us.
And on and on the meeting went, one false accusation followed by another and by another and then by more nitpicking over trivialities, and, almost needless to say, by angry outbursts from both sides. Again, it was as if we had never responded to the accusations to begin with.
Not once — not once — was there any apparent willingness on the part of county staff to discuss the meat of the charges in the CL story as they relate to the county, which is that county staff has been insufficiently aggressive in documenting the damage caused by CMU’s spills, and that the citizens of neighborhoods through which some of the spills have flowed have been insufficiently warned of possible dangers. These charges still stand and still remain unanswered by the county.
The irony in all this is that our investigation was more critical of the state agency that is charged with enforcing water quality rules then of the county’s water quality people. Even when the county has done a good job of documenting some spills — such as in the case of 14 spills from the Long Creek Station — the state did not fine CMU even once in the three-year period. The folks at MCWQP obviously care about the water or they wouldn’t be in their line of work; and it’s an understandable reaction to repeated futility that they could, over time, lose sight of the necessity of thorough documentation, including testing, when large spills occur. However, how else will the state ever be held accountable for refusing to fine CMU for spilling millions of gallons of raw sewage into the county’s streams?
During the course of the frustrating meeting, CL‘s editor offered to look yet again at the county’s complaints. After doing so, here are the two instances he found in which our story needs clarification:
1. CL’s rebuttal to the county’s response said that the original article stated we only analyzed spills over 100,000 gallons. We did, in fact, only write about spills over 100,000 gallons, but the story did not state that. It should have, and this was an oversight on our part.
2. CL’s article said that the county has spent tens of millions of dollars on a surface water improvement program. That should have been better worded to explain that the county as a whole — county government and the developers they police, and not just county government — has spent tens of millions of dollars.
The above is the kind of nitpicking the county engaged in during our meeting, which explains why we termed their responses a smokescreen to draw attention away from CL‘s charges. We also called their responses “bureaucratic scrambling,” the initials for which, of course, are B.S.
It is irresponsible, not to mention discouraging and disturbing, that the county government has chosen to brush aside the charges in our story. Again, our main points still stand, and have yet to be addressed by the county or the state. As of this writing, County Manager Harry Jones has yet to return calls asking for a meeting on these issues.
CL’s response to the county’s accusations is available online at www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com. *
This article appears in May 22-28, 2002.
