An Indian, fired from her job for blowing the whistle on excessive lead levels in water supplied to citizens in Washington DC, has emerged victorious in her battle with the city administration after a judge ordered that she be reinstated and awarded damages totalling more than Rs 2.25 crores.
Seema S Bhat, water quality manager for Washington DC Water and Sewer Authority, was fired two years ago for taking the issue of contaminated water supplied to residents directly to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
WASA officials had then claimed that Bhat was fired because she was rude to superiors and had failed to inform them of the key findings.
The 59-year-old was, however, fully vindicated when an administrative law judge Stuart Levin ruled last week that she was fired from the agency not because of her "abrasive tone" exhibited toward her superiors, but because of indulging in activities protected by the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The judge also ordered that she be reinstated and awarded damages, including $50,000 (Rs 22.50 lakh) in compensatory damages, $10,000 (Rs 4.5 lakhs) in exemplary damages, back pay on her $73,000 (Rs 32,85,000 lakh) salary, attorney fees and court costs. Bhat's attorney said that the total comes to more than $500,000 (Rs 2.25 crores).
The Washington Post commenting on the case, said, "It's an open question whether WASA is ponying up enough" for the wrongs committed.
"What's more, WASA managers played down initial findings of excessive lead levels in 2002 according to an independent report ordered by the utility even as lead was in fact seeping into drinking water affecting thousands of district homes," the report said.
It pointed out that the two men who ordered her termination, her supervisor Kofi Boeteng and WASA's Deputy General Manager Michael Marcotte are no longer with the agency.
"WASA brought lead levels below the federal action level last spring. It took public outcry to bring out such needed scrutiny of WASA. The agency's next critical step is to assemble a workforce filled with diligent and dedicated managers such as Bhat. Such changes, we hope, will keep WASA out of hot water and on the right side of the rules," the paper noted.
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