Sludge spill probed again

Previous inquiries disagreed on whether the June 1998 discharge was intentional. Now a federal grand jury is looking into the matter.

By LARRY DOUGHERTY

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2000

TAMPA -- A federal grand jury apparently is looking into circumstances surrounding a sludge spill at a northwest Hillsborough County wastewater treatment plant in June 1998.

Federal investigators declined to comment on their inquiry Thursday. But in November and December of last year an FBI agent talked to county water department employees and handed county officials two grand jury subpoenas.

One subpoena sought records of the operation of two county wastewater plants in northwest Hillsborough, such as operator logs, lab reports and maintenance records.

The other subpoena sought the personnel files of a county employee named Tom Crowson, supervisor of the Eagles Waste Water Treatment Plant, a remote facility near the Pinellas County line.

Eagles was the site of a sludge discharge seen by a resident June 23, 1998, according to county records. After receiving the complaint, an investigator with the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) found a hose that led from a sewage-processing facility.

The end of the hose was lodged under a chain-link fence on the property, and it discharged sludge onto nearby overgrown brush.

County water department staffers concluded the discharge was unintentional, saying the hose had been moved to its position accidentally.

But the EPC, a separate part of county government, referred the case to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as an intentional discharge. The DEP eventually decided not to prosecute, county records state.

County officials said Thursday they could shed little light on the subject of the federal criminal inquiry.

"What I know is essentially that there has been an inquiry from the FBI, who have talked to employees at the wastewater operation, and it is related to a spill that took place in the summer of 1998," Hillsborough Administrator Dan Kleman said Thursday.

Tony Shoemaker, an assistant county administrator, said: "The EPC thought it was an intentional spill of about 100 gallons, and that (Crowson) did it on purpose. The water department determined it was accidental."

Shoemaker said county officials have tried to guess why the FBI is interested in the subject, without success.

"It is really puzzling to me," Shoemaker said. "We have talked about it, and no one has any idea."

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office and a spokeswoman for the FBI both declined to comment Thursday.

Crowson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

- Larry Dougherty can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or dougherty@sptimes.com.

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