WINFIELD – A former employee of the City of Hurricane claims he was fired in retaliation for reporting a supervisor’s allegedly illegal activities.
Michael Plumley filed his complaint February 12 in Putnam Circuit Court against the city, Mayor Scott Edwards, City Superintendent Ronnie Woodall and City Manager Andy Skidmore.
According to the complaint, Plumley was hired in 2009 as chief operator of the city wastewater treatment facility. He says his duties included overseeing the maintenance of the equipment and facilities, completing reports and acting as a liaison with landfill officials.
In the summer of 2019, Plumley says Woodall permitted the Boyd County Sanitary Landfill to illegally dump leachate (runoff water from the landfill) at a dump station in Hurricane.
“As a result, fish began dying in the creek below the dump station,” the complaint states. “A homeowner who lived near the dump site reported the issue to the West Virginia Department of Environment Protection.”
Plumley says he provided Woodall and Edwards with information regarding the legal and environmental ramifications of the dumping. He says potential penalties included felony convictions and fines. He also says he told them the sludge is known to be extremely toxic because of potential cancer-causing chemicals in it.
After that, Plumley says Woodall began treating him in a more callous manner, often threatening his job and demeaning him.
He also says Woodall directed him not to report a spill across from the city’s new Bridge Park, attempted to alter evidence related to the spill to try to deceive DEP inspectors and disregarded questions about properly maintaining holding tanks.
Still, he says Woodall directed city workers to dispose of sludge from the wastewater facility onto Water Tank Hill across from Bridge Park in spring 2022.
On April 8, 2022, Plumley says he sent an email to Skidmore to report Woodall’s directive. He says he also notified the state DEP.
A month later, Plumley was charged with driving under the influence and was fired three days later. He says the city used the DUI as a pretext to terminate him because he had not been convicted of any crime and did not lose driving privileges and was able to continue to work.
Plumley says his firing was in retaliation for reporting Woodall’s activity.
He accuses the defendants of violating the West Virginia Whistleblower Law and of retaliation.
Plumley seeks compensatory damages for lost wages and benefits, back pay, front pay, reinstatement, actual damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, witness fees and other relief.
He is being represented by Nathanial Kuratomi of Warner Law Offices in Charleston.
Putnam Circuit Court case number 24-C-34