NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP employee has filed a
whistleblower lawsuit against the company, claiming he was fired for
airing concerns about the cleanup of Mississippi’s shoreline after the
Gulf oil spill.
In a federal suit filed last Friday in New
Orleans, August Walter claims one of his BP bosses manipulated data on
shoreline cleanup and didn’t give the Coast Guard "the true status" of
what substances needed to be cleaned.
Walter, a Covington, La.,
resident who helped develop BP’s cleanup plans in Mississippi after the
2010 spill began, claims in the suit that he was fired last month in
retaliation for complaining that BP wasn’t following environmental
regulations and was "picking and choosing what oil to pick up."
Walter
also claims he refused to misrepresent data so that the Coast Guard
would believe cleanup activities in Mississippi were closer to
completion.
"This was all based on money and had nothing to do
with actually cleaning up the oil or meeting the (Shoreline Treatment
Recommendations) or environmental requirements," the suit alleges.
BP
spokesman Tom Mueller said the company doesn’t believe Walter’s
allegations have merit but will investigate "consistent with our
personnel policies and code of conduct. "
"We believe we have
demonstrated good faith in meeting our obligations in the Gulf and are
committed to treating our employees fairly," Mueller said in a
statement.
BP said in November that it had spent $13.6 billion on
the response, including its efforts to clean up 635 miles of Gulf Coast
shoreline affected by the spill. By then, more than 90 percent of the
affected area had "met the agreed upon standards" for transitioning from
the cleanup phase to coastal restoration, BP said.
Walter’s
lawsuit claims BP took "short cuts," with one BP official allegedly
saying BP only would clean up tar balls and not smaller oil debris.
The
allegations in Walter’s suit are limited to BP’s cleanup in
Mississippi. The company implemented similar plans in Louisiana, Alabama
and Florida after an April 20, 2005, blowout in BP’s Macondo well
triggered a deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and
led to the worst offshore oil spill in the nation’s history.
Walter
started working for BP in May 2011 as a "state planning lead" on
Mississippi cleanup. The suit, which alleges violations of the Louisiana
Environmental Whistleblower Statute, seeks unspecified monetary
damages, including three years of lost wages.
"He wasn’t the lead man on the project, but he had three people working under him," said
Walter’s attorney, James Arruebarrena.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.