UGA researchers turn down arbitration in federal lawsuit

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Posted: 7/27/08

A lawsuit filed against University researchers, professors and the Board of Regents that alleges they fabricated data has been ordered to consider arbitration by a federal judge.

But on July 25, the attorneys for the UGA researchers and professors said their clients are withdrawing from the arbitration process.

The suit involves two Augusta farming families and David L. Lewis, a former microbiologist for the Environmental Protection Agency and an adjunct senior research scientist in the School of Ecology. They filed a lawsuit against several University-affiliated parties, including John Walker, Julia W. Gaskin, William P. Miller, E. William Tollner, L. Mark Risse, the Board of Regents and the University's Research Foundation, according to court documents first obtained by The Red & Black in April.

Walker was an employee of the EPA and was the Biosolids Program team leader in the Office of Wastewater Management. Gaskin is a land application specialist in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

In 1998, Walker assembled a team including Gaskin, Miller, Tollner and Risse to investigate sewage sludge processed by a wastewater treatment plant in Augusta, according to court documents.

The city of Augusta was fighting lawsuits filed by two farming families, R.A. McElmurray III and G. William Boyce, who claimed that the sludge processed by the plant and later was distributed as fertilizer for the farms contained "hazardous chemical wastes" that killed their cattle, according to the court documents.

Sewage sludge is the semi-solid material left over from water treatment processes. It has been approved by the EPA to treat soil.

The University could be ordered to return EPA grants, which ran into the millions, and pay financial penalties if Lewis' claims stand up in federal court.

Here is the original story from the Red & Black.