SALINE/WILLIAMSON COs.—A Marion-based Environmental Protection Agency inspector lost his job with the EPA after the agency found that he had falsified reports regarding a local landfill.
But it’s not just any “local landfill”; it’s West End Landfill in Saline County, said landfill owned by Rick Lane and attorney Robert Wilson.
The Office of the Executive Inspector General (OEIG) of the state of Illinois conducted the investigation into Robert Mileur, IEPA land inspector, after complaints were made and irregularities were found in reports dating back to 2006.
The result of the OEIG’s investigation were submitted for a final summary report on June 2, 2011. Mileur was placed on paid administrative leave June 17, 2011; on non-paid suspension August 3, 2011; discharged on Aug. 29, 2011 and the material submitted to the attorney general’s office shortly thereafter.
Typical of state agencies, however, Mileur was not “gone” altogether; instead, on October 4, 2011, he “returned to work in a different position with a 30-day suspension.
Disclosure has learned that Mileur went to Illinois’ Department of Mines and Minerals.
How this was all wrangled is a matter of discovery through FOIA, which Disclosure is conducting.
But more importantly is the fact that Mileur was covering over for hazardous materials violations at the landfill; and what those hazardous materials are doing to the area around the landfill, located west of Galatia in northwest Saline County.
Complaints spark real inspection
Official documents show that the investigation kicked off when the OEIG received a complaint alleging Mileur gave West End employees advance warning of surprise inspections, and was furthered when the OEIG discovered that Mileur submitted false IEPA inspection reports and undermined inspections.
Mileur’s responsibilities include inspecting southern Illinois landfills and reporting violations of the IEPA and Illinois Administrative Code, then submitting reports.
He was responsible for inspecting West End until August 2010 until an EPA employee became aware that Mileur had “developed a personal relationship with one of West End’s owners” (the name of either Lane or Wilson was redacted) “and it appeared that the relationship with the owner affected Mileur’s inspections.”
An IEPA employee (name also redacted, being called in the documents “Employee 1”) stated that IEPA had issued a Notice of Violations to West End following another employee’s (Employee 2) October 2010 inspection of the facility—after Mileur had already been removed.
“[Employee 1] said that during [Employee 2’s] inspection, she saw and reported violations that were the most serious he had seen in over a decade,” the report shows, meaning that West End would be referred, by IEPA, to the Illinois Attorney General for civil prosecution after West End submitted its response to IEPA. Employee 1 said that IEPA had referred less severe violations at other landfills to the AG, which have typically resulted in fines of $10,000 to $25,000.
MULTIPLE violations
Copies of Mileur’s inspection reports between 2005 and 2009 indicate that there were three violations, two in 2006 and one in 2007: Two uncovered refuse containers, use of unpermitted portion of landfill and overfilling one landfill cell.
When a real inspection was conducted Oct. 13, 2013, besides the two unnamed employees’ findings, IEPA reported failure to: properly dispose of asbestos, properly manage tires, prevent unauthorized access to the facility, properly manage site drainage, implement a load check program, adequately light the facility, properly compact waste, demonstrate proper rector controls, provide access to wheelwash, as well as two additional instances of failing to properly cover waste, two instances of improperly accepting special (industrial or chemical) waste, and eight instances of improper or inadequate record-keeping.
When interviewed, one of the owners (Wilson or Lane was redacted) stated that Mileur would provide West End time to address violations rather than reporting them to IEPA…as previous inspectors (dating back to when the place opened in 1990) had done.
He also insisted that violations and fines had been assessed in the previous years. But when IEPA examined the database, one Administrative Citation to West End in 2004, was discovered for “failure to collect and contain litter,” resulting in a $500 fine.
Stinging emails about IEPA employees
After his suspension and transferal to Mines and Minerals, Mileur’s emails and phone records were examined by OEIG officials…and startling communication with other IEPA employees in December 2010 and January 2011 were issued. It is unclear whether these employees were strictly based out of the Marion IEPA office, or if they were statewide:
On December 3 to Employee 5: “Now you have teamed up with [employee 2] and [employee 6]. Oh, that is going to get you places. They are so beloved by everyone around here. Two antisocial and abrasive personalities…good match now that I think of it. Well, I guess I have said enough and I kept it fairly clean. You can go ahead and forward it to [employee 1] if you like, I really don’t give a rip. He has a checkered past himself from what I have been told. Just make sure you tell him that [employee 2] didn’t inspect West End for over a year and didn’t follow the quarterly inspection protocol. The whole surprise inspection crap was something created by [redacted] and, according to the Solid Waste Inspection Manual, is not the way to do a (landfill) inspection anyway.”
On Dec. 22, also to Employee 5: “[Employee 2] is so dumb that she doesn’t realize she is messing with people of power like (redacted, either Rick Lane or Robert Wilson) who owns half of the interest in West End. There is part of me that wants to warn her but I am just going to let it play out until she fries. She was even over talking to Big Tea this week digging for information on hydrology so she can nail West End for some other permit violation. She has some personal vendetta that really has no basis.”
On January 13, 2011, to Employee 7: “Everywhere [employee 2] goes she finds problems. Some are legitimate and some are off the wall crazy. She has no common sense and has no idea how things work in the real world. She inspects the landfill and doesn’t even understand basic hydrology. Even goes as far as questioning the engineered footprint of the facility.”
On January 19, 2011, to Employee 8: “[Employee 2 and 3] are meeting with [employee 1] about West End right now and they are talking softly so I cannot hear them. [Employee 2] is questioning their professional land survey and she had non-professional people from permits come down with GPS units to survey. Funny when you think about it. She is one evil woman with an axe to grind. Wow!”
Inspection of phone calls; interviews
OEIG investigators then obtained and examined copies of Mileur’s personal and IEPA telephone records for calls between May 1 and Dec. 17, 2010. These records showed that Mileur made or received 176 phone calls with one of the owners of West End, not named, as well as other West End employee during this period….which is a time period he did not inspect West End.
During a March 23, 2011 OEIG interview with Mileur, he complained about IEPA employee 2, stating she conducted inspections “in an adversarial manner, which did not promote a positive image of the agency.”
He also stated she was not qualified to conduct inspections, and stated that he told one of West End’s owners (not named) that Employee 2 was not qualified to conduct IEPA inspections.
He was handed the emails printed above, and the record of 176 phone calls.
Mileur admitted that he had written the emails and made the calls, and that because they were critical of Employee 2, that could be something that undermined the integrity of the agency.
Breach of Confidentiality allegation
Further to the phone calls to one of the owners of West End (not named), OEIG found that during the May 1-Dec. 17, 2010 period, Mileur had called one of the owners (not named) at West End five times for a total of less than seven minutes immediately before the IEPA surprise inspection that employee 2 conducted at West End on Oct. 13, 2010. There were no other records of contact with West End prior to any other surprise inspection.
During a Dec. 21, 2010 interview of Employee 2 with OEIG investigators, she told them she’d conducted a surprise inspection at a West End Landfill employee’s home on Aug. 25, 2010. She said when she arrived at the home and identified herself, the employee’s spouse informed her that the employee would be home shortly. The inspector said this intermediation surprised her because the spouse had not had time to contact the West End employee.
On Feb. 23, 2011, OEIG investigators interviewed West End employees, one of the owners, and one other person (all names redacted) regarding surprise IEPA inspections. They all advised that Mileur never contacted them to warn them of upcoming inspections. One of them explained that on Aug. 25, he was driving home for lunch when his spouse called to advise that an IEPA inspector was at their residence. The owner (name redacted) said that advance notice of an inspection would not benefit West End, because it would be impossible to address any potentially serious violations immediately.
Mileur reiterated that thought in a subsequent March 23, 2011 interview.
The IEPA let Mileur go (but allowed a transfer to another state job, probably doing much the same thing while there) on the basis that he submitted false IEPA inspection reports on West End Landfill and had undermined the integrity of IEPA inspections and brought discredit to IEPA. They found that he had not forewarned landfill owners of surprise IEPA investigations…but that included only the times that the OEIG knew of.
That, of course, doesn’t address the problems of asbestos, tires, industrial or chemical waste, problems with such waste traveling out of West End Landfill on the wheels of the trucks coming out of the facility, and improper load checking.
In upcoming issues, Disclosure will examine why this is crucial, and what it means for everyone surrounding the landfill…and in particular, what’s going on UNDER the areas around the landfill. The February/March edition hits stands Feb. 18-19.