(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Long-time Dubuque water employee decertified for falsifying test data [1]

['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- May']

Date: 2023-05

State regulators recently revoked the certification of a drinking water treatment operator in Dubuque, who was fired by the city in late January and was found to have falsified test results.

There is no evidence that the falsifications led to unsafe drinking water for the city, said Amber Sauser, a senior environmental specialist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources who investigated the matter.

Brian Schultz voluntarily surrendered his water treatment certification in a recent agreement with the DNR, according to an administrative order. That order prohibits Schultz from obtaining a new certification from the DNR for drinking water treatment, distribution or wastewater treatment until July 2025.

Schultz had worked for Dubuque for more than two decades and was hired in May 2001, according to city records.

His employment was terminated after a city investigation concluded he had violated state rules, the city’s employee handbook and the city water department’s policies and procedures, said Angie Kelley, an administrative assistant for the city’s human resources department.

Sauser said Schultz was accused of manufacturing test results for internal, operational data that is not reported to the DNR, such as tests for acidity and hardness. She said the city reviewed surveillance video recordings that showed Schultz wasn’t conducting tests as prescribed by water department policy.

Those recordings are retained by the city for several months, Sauser said. It’s unclear how long the falsifications had been ongoing.

Because Dubuque does more testing than what is required by the state — and because there were other water department workers who were reporting test results accurately — the city “felt we could be comfortable that the water quality was maintained,” Sauser said.

Iowa rules prohibit certified water treatment operators from making fraudulent reports during the course of their work.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/long-time-dubuque-water-employee-decertified-for-falsifying-test-data/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/