Calais Man Now Accused of Filing False Documents

BY Diana Graettinger, the NEWS Staff , Bangor Daily News Bangor, ME

CALAIS, Maine, Sept. 27, 2000, (Bell & Howell) — The city sewage official who has been accused of lying to the state about daily treatment tests had failed, in a separate case, to file reports "on a timely basis" in 1998, causing Calais to be fined $1,500, a city official confirmed Tuesday.

Brian S. Clark, 42, was charged Monday with intentionally filing false monthly reports with the state Department of Environmental Protection in which he claimed that he had performed the required daily tests on wastewater being discharged from the city sewage treatment plant into the St. Croix River.

Clark, superintendent of the plant, is on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

A DEP official said Tuesday that, although the required tests on the wastewater had not been performed as required, the impact on the river was not an issue.

"The issue at this point is that it had to do with reporting data," said Clarissa Trasko, a DEP environmental specialist in Bangor. "It had nothing to do with the data exceeding limits."

According to the criminal complaint on file with 4th District Court in Calais, Clark made false statements, representations or certifications in reports to DEP from Sept. 3, 1997, to April 7 of this year.

The complaint says that Clark, "knowingly prepared, signed and filed monthly monitoring reports with the Department of Environmental Protection showing results for settleable solids tests required five times per week by the town of Calais' waste discharge license, which tests he knew had not been performed."

State licenses require all wastewater treatment plants to follow specific testing guidelines.

If convicted, Clark could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to up to six months in prison. This is not the first time that Clark has come to the attention of DEP.

In 1998, the city was fined $1,500 because it failed to file its state reports in a timely fashion, said interim City Manager Jim Porter on Tuesday.

Clark, who had been employed at the sewage treatment plant since 1989, had been responsible for filing those reports, Porter said.

Former City Manager Tim Smith said Tuesday that DEP fined the city around $2,500 but that Smith was able to negotiate that down to $1,500 with the understanding that the reports would not be late in the future.

Asked about the city's liability on the issue, state Assistant Attorney General Jerry Reid would say only, "There may be, but this action does not involve the city."

Clark's lawyer, John Mitchell of Calais, said he had spoken briefly with Clark on Tuesday, but had not had an opportunity to review the facts. "I don't have any more information than what is in the newspaper at this point," he said.

"What I do know is that what has been reported is not accurate," he said. Asked if he meant that the news report or the complaint filed by the Maine State Police were not accurate, Mitchell responded, "In so far as the complaint appears to say that no tests have been done since XXX1997XXX, that's flat out false," he said. "But what context that is said in, I wouldn't have a clue."

Mark Bader, executive director of the St. Croix Estuary Project, said Tuesday that the city of Calais "has put more into sewage treatment infrastructure than most communities, and is typically held to be an excellent example where municipal sewage treatment is concerned. If it is found that there are some administrative problems, that would be unfortunate, but it shouldn't detract from what the city has done to address the treatment of its effluent."

Lee Sochasky, executive director of the St. Croix Waterway Commission, which oversees the water quality of the river, said the case is discouraging, "but we're certain that Calais will fix any problem promptly. A lot has been done in recent years to improve St. Croix waters for clam digging and recreation."

The city's sewage treatment plant is on the St. Croix River, upstream from eagle and osprey nests and from St. Croix Island, the site of one of the earliest European settlements in North America.

It was business as usual at the sewage treatment plant Tuesday. Porter said there were two other people on staff who were taking care of the day-to-day operations. He said the city had not heard from anyone who had had problems with the system.

He said the city was considering hiring an outside contractor - "temporarily while this is under administrative review." He said an outside contractor was needed because the employees at the plant did not have DEP licenses.

The plant was built in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and Porter said it is in good condition and upgraded regularly. It is licensed to discharge up to 1.5 million gallons per day.

Although the complaint said Clark had not accurately reported test information for a three-year-period, Porter said Clark apparently began making accurate reports to the DEP in April.

Because this is a pending legal issue, Porter would not elaborate, but did say, "The effluent is OK because there are other tests being done."

The DEP's environmental specialist said the treatment plant operates under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permit and a DEP license. "Both are essentially the same document. There are some little differences between the federal program and our state program, but essentially they are the same," Trasko said.

She said its license requires that various tests be conducted weekly and monthly to make certain the plant is in compliance. She said the required tests include biochemical oxygen demand, which is a measure of the oxygen needed to break down the organic material in wastewater; and a test for total solids suspended in the wastewater, information on solids that settle out and eventually become sludge, which is later removed.

Tests also are conducted for chlorine residual. "That goes hand and hand with fecal coliform. That is what the Department of Marine Resources would be concerned with in shellfish areas," she said. "Coliform are an indicator species for viruses. So that's where your human health issues come in," she said. Chlorine is used to disinfect, so the bacteria do not go out in the effluent.

The data from the tests are submitted to the DEP for review. The DEP then inspects the respective plants statewide yearly. "Our inspections, for the most part, are unannounced," she said. "Nor is there a set requirement for the number of inspections that we do." She said some of the facilities require what is called a major inspection, and Calais is one of those plants. "It has to do with the size of the facility. ... It is considered a major facility," she said.

This year, she said, the DEP conducted three inspections at the Calais site. Last year, it did two.