Firing of Ascension pump station manager upheld in oil spill flap. A whistleblower?

He noted that, despite the alleged pollution concerns, the absorbent pads weren’t disposed of as hazardous material but thrown in a regular trash container. The pump station was also turned on to discharge the allegedly contaminated water from a pond into the bayou, he said.

Parish administration officials also didn’t say on Thursday or respond to a request for comment Friday about whether they notified the state Department of Environmental Quality about the alleged oil spill in the water.

Greg Langley, DEQ spokesman, said on Friday he was not immediately able to find evidence of a notification in an agency documents database.

A time lag can occur between when documents are sent to the agency and when they appear in the database, though Langley noted it wouldn’t usually be that long.

Lawler, Orgeron and Casso were among the seven council members who voted to overturn the termination. The others were Councilman John Cagnolatti, Dal Waguespack and the council chairman and vice-chairman, Chase Melancon and Alvin “Coach” Thomas.

Those voting to uphold the termination were Councilmen Dempsey Lambert, Michael Mason, Joel Robert and Travis Turner.

Robert, a local businessman, said photographs that Schexnayder gave the council in his defense on Thursday were a key factor, for him, in upholding the termination.

The photos, which were of the spill but not made public, show that Schexnayder had used containment material to make a roughly three-inch levee encircling the spill.

But he failed to use the material, described by some councilmen as having a kind of “kitty litter” texture, to actually absorb the pool of oil that covered a 15-foot-by-8-foot area, Robert explained.

Though Robert said he believed Schexnayder was not a fan of the current administration, he doubted the termination was retaliation but was a necessity.

“I don’t like firing people,” Robert said. “Believe it or not, I don’t. ‘Cause I get it. That’s somebody’s career. That’s somebody’s job. That’s their life, but, at the same stance, I mean, it’s something I’ve learned to do a long time ago. Because you are accountable for the work and what they do. And when we don’t do that, it falls back on us.”