Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Tune in Tuesday at 1:00pm EDT to Honesty Without Fear on Progressive Radio Network.

Guest Host Dr. David Lewis interviews fellow EPA whistleblower William Sanjour about his recent article "Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don't Work" in Independent Science News. Mr. Sanjour uses his 30 years of experience at the EPA to not only explain the problem, but also to offer some solutions. One of those solutions is to better protect the whistleblowers who raise concerns. Listen to Lewis and Sanjour discuss why administrative regulations are broken and why they failed to prevent events like the BP Oil Disaster.

You can take action to protect whistleblowers by signing the petition.
 
Submit Your Question to be asked on air during the show or call in to 1-888-874-4888.

Missed last week's episode?? You can listen to the podcast.

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Tune in tomorrow at 1:00pm EDT to Honesty Without Fear on Progressive Radio Network.

In the first half hour, Steve Kohn and Lindsey Williams discuss the status of environmental whistleblower protections and how listeners can help by taking action.

In the second half hour, Richard Renner interviews Dr. David Lewis, a highly respected research microbiologist, about scientific integrity and his experience blowing the whistle on the EPA’s policy of promoting the land application of sewage sludge on farmland.

Submit Your Question to be asked on air during the show.

Missed last week's episode?? You can listen to the podcast.

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Today, Newsweek’s The Daily Beast announced that whistleblowers from across the country are donating a new how-to guide to local public libraries. So far, the whistleblowers have donated a thousand copies, which is only the beginning if their idea takes off. 

Written by the NWC’s very own Stephen M. Kohn, The Whistleblower Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself has received staunch praise from whistleblowers who have already fought through their cases. John Solomon of The Daily Best describes Mr. Kohn as, “a feared litigator in government and corporate circles, who wins three quarters of the cases he brings on behalf of aggrieved whistleblowers.”

Frederic Whitehurst, who blew the whistle on the FBI crime lab in the 1990s, came up with the library project and was interviewed for the Newsweek article. “With whistleblowers, if they lose their case, they lose their credibility, and that means they can’t fix the wrong they want to right. So this really is about citizen empowerment,” he explained. “Where do people go and what can they do to make change and have a major impact when they know of something wrong.” 

Dr. Whitehurst, Solomon reports, “would do it all again, [but] doesn’t want future whistleblowers to make the same mistakes he did.” This sentiment is shared among the 20 whistleblowers who are sending the Handbooks to libraries. They have all used their own money for the donations, hoping to “inspire Americans to blow the whistle on the next Enron-sized corporate fraud, a potentially devastating nuclear- or drug-safety issue, or the ethical transgressions of a government leader–but to do it in a way that saves them some of the heartache [they] endured.”

You can find the full list of 20 whistleblowers who have joined the cause, including Bunny Greenhouse, Sibel Edmonds, Robert Smith, Dr. David Lewis, and Linda Tripp, in the National Whistleblowers Center press release.

If you would like to join the whistleblowers’ initiative by donating a Handbook to a public library, click here.

*Owen Dunn (NWC Fellow) drafted this posting

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My client, Dr. David L. Lewis, is issuing an open letter today urging the House of Representatives to correct the "the grievous and manifold shortcomings in S. 372 before voting on it." He also urges his fellow citizens to join him in taking action to share his concerns with their representatives.

Dr. Lewis was a top microbiologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He raised the standards for dental hygiene worldwide when he showed how previous practices were inadequate to protect dental patients from the transmission of HIV.  He showed how EPA's rules for land application of sewage sludge did not have the scientific support needed to protect us from airborne diseases. That is when "industry representatives and EPA managers went ballistic." His retaliation case is still pending.

He is today concerned that:

• S. 372 ― for the first time ever ― would deny protection to federal employees if a judge finds that violations of law exposed by whistleblowers were “minor,” “inadvertent,” or committed when the violator was engaged in a “conscientious carrying out of official duties.” Every federal manager faced with a whistleblower retaliation claim will be hiding under this gaping loophole.
• S. 372 would deny protection for whistleblowers who challenge an act of discretionary authority, or any retaliation against other whistleblowers. These exclusions would render whistleblowers even more powerless to prevent waste, fraud, abuse and violations of law within the federal government.
• S. 372 would allow judges on the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) to dismiss whistleblower cases without any hearing. Due to all of the loopholes already at the disposal of employers who retaliate, federal employees prevail in less than 2% of the cases that proceed to a hearing. The current system needs to provide more fairness to whistleblowers ─ not to make it even more burdensome to prevail.

He urges everyone to Take Action by contacting their representatives. The full text of his letter follows in the continuation of this entry.

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My client Dr. David Lewis has written a story about his experience blowing the whistle at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is called, "EPA Fired Oil-Degradation Expert Concerned about Deepwater Oil Rigs: The Iron Horse of Science." It appears in the current issue of the monthly Pennsylvania publication The Order of the Earth. Click on September issue, and then go to page 7.

In 1998, the EPA transferred David to the University of Georgia in part to research how we might better respond to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. The politics that ensued show why we need leadership from the top to remove politics from science.

David's story will have particular appeal to alumni of the University of Georgia.

Photo by Walter Montgomery.

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My client, Dr. David L. Lewis, was a top microbiologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He raised the standards for dental hygiene worldwide when he showed how previous practices were inadequate to protect dental patients from the transmission of HIV.  He showed how EPA's rules for land application of sewage sludge did not have the scientific support needed to protect us from airborne diseases. Now the Environmental News Network (ENN) is reporting that in 1998, the EPA assigned Dr. Lewis to the University of Georgia in part to research the risks of crude oil spills from drilling rigs.  Dr. Lewis was concerned that oil from a blowout could travel in deep sea currents to environmentally sensitive areas on all sides of the Atlantic.  Anyone ever hear of the "Gulf Stream"? ENN is reporting that the Clinton Administration's EPA nixed the project. The EPA's Office of Water (OW), headed by Robert Perciasepe, coordinated with leaders of the biosolids industry (who were sore about Dr. Lewis' research on the dangers posed by their industry) to damage his reputation and get him fired in 2003.  ENN says that EPA Administrator Carol Browner was sympathetic but was "overruled at the highest level."  President Barack Obama appointed Browner to oversee energy and environmental issues, and appointed Perciasepe as EPA Deputy Administrator. It is too bad that we lost the opportunity to apply our top scientific talent to the problem of biological degradation of crude oil, and that those who sided with industry over our interests are again setting government policy. You can read Dr. Lewis' paper on his proposal to study oil spills, how EPA squashed it, and then squashed his career at EPA, by following this link.

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U.S. District Judge Clay Land, of Athens, Georgia, issued an order yesterday compelling the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide their employee Madolyn Dominy for deposition in a whistleblower's scientific fraud case.   Madolyn Dominy was the EPA's Regional Biosolids Coordinator from 1998 to 2004.  In his whistleblower lawsuit, Dr. David L. Lewis (pictured) and dairy farmers Andy McElmurray and William Boyce claim that researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) conspired with EPA employees to make false statements as part of a grant application to justify land application of sewage sludge. The law firm of Hallman & Wingate of Marietta, Georgia, represents Dr. Lewis, McElmurray and Boyce in this case. The EPA tried to use is "Touhy" regulation to prevent Hallman & Wingate from deposing Dominy.  Yesterday, Judge Land rejected this attempt, and ordered that EPA make Dominy available for deposition by September 11, 2009. A copy of the order is available at this link.

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