Joe Glisson files lawsuit against Tallahassee

By WILLIAM SNOWDEN

wsnowden@thewakullanews.net

Wakulla County resident Joe Glisson filed a lawsuit last week against the City of Tallahassee, asking the court to determine whether the city still had to abide by its settlement agreement with him and Wakulla County.

Glisson filed the lawsuit in Leon Circuit Court on Thursday, May 13.

In 2006, Glisson filed a lawsuit to challenge the city's environmental permit to operate its wastewater treatment plant, claiming the city's activities were causing the degradation of Wakulla Springs. Wakulla County later joined the lawsuit. While the city at first said it wasn't clear whether nutrients from the sprayfield were causing algae blooms and dark water at the springs, when it became apparent it was a culprit, the city vowed to spend tens of millions of dollars to treat its wastewater to Advanced Wastewater Treatment standards.

The lawsuits were dismissed when the city entered into the settlement agreement with the parties.

Since then, though, the city has backtracked from its plan, complaining of costs.

"Absolutely, I feel like I've been forced to do this," Glisson said last week.

City officials appeared at a couple of recent workshop meetings with Wakulla County Commissioners – prompting the county to direct its attorneys to file a lawsuit challenging the city's backing off of its treatment plan.

One cornerstone of the city's treatment plan was to reuse treated water for irrigation projects – such as on athletic fields and golf courses – rather than spraying it on the  city farm at Tram Road. Now the city says re-use of water is too expensive, and has dropped those plans.

The city also planned to convert bio-solids from the treatment plant into fertilizer pellets – but has backed off that as well, instead trucking the solids to a landfill.

Glisson said he had hoped Wakulla County would file first, but was concerned that the deadline was rapidly approaching to challenge the city.

For its part, the city's attorney has indicated at meetings with the county that its legal theory is that when the state Department of Environmental Protection issued permits for the city's sewage treatment facility as a result of the settlement agreement, it fulfilled the terms of the agreement. The city is now seeking to modify the permit – reducing the steps in the treatment train, for example, from four steps to two – but countered that such modifications have no effect on the settlement agreement.

In his complaint, Glisson insists, "The (settlement agreement) contains detailed specifications and timetables for completion of the city's treatment facility upgrades needed to reach specified nutrient reduction goals and it was the product of extensive negotiations between all parties."

Glisson asks the court to find that the settlement agreement is still valid and binding and to find the city's repudiation of the settlement agreement and refusal to abide by its terms and conditions are in violation of the law.

Glisson is self-taught as an environmentalist. He was a street cop in Tuscaloosa, Ala., 40 years ago and earned a PhD. to became a criminal justice professor.