10/25/2017

 

Board of Commissioners
Collier Mosquito Control District
600 North Road

Naples, Fl 34104

Dear Board of Commissioners,

I am writing this letter of disclosure under the Florida Whistle Blowers Act
(Section 112.3187) to disclose my knowledge of events which violate at least section
487 of the Florida statutes as well as elements of FJFRA and constitute a danger to the
public health and welfare.

In approximately June of 2016, the Collier Mosquito Control District received
numerous complaints from citizens indicating that they smelled the pesticide Dibrom in
and around their properties possibly indicating faulty or broken aerial spray equipment.
Complaints included, dead goats, dead geese, chest pain, burning skin and eyes and
other abnormal complaints. I asked the Executive Director Patrick Linn (ED) in the
presence of Stacy Welch, the Director of Administration to have the maintenance
technicians check the spray equipment based on these complaints to verify that the
equipment is functioning properly. The Executive Director denied this request and the
equipment remained unchecked. in approximately August of 2016, the chief
maintenance technician reported a ?small? spill of Dibrom and a broken rotary atomizer
to the Executive Director in my presence. I followed the Executive Director and Director
of Maintenance Jay Wilson (DOM) to the hangar to inspect the spill. Dibrom stains were
located on the ground and the aircraft had recently been washed by the technicians to
obscure the extent of the spill. The quantity of the spill was unknowable but potentially
more than the EPA reportable quantity indicated gallons) for Dibrom as mandated
by CERCLA. The cause of the spill was a broken plastic cap on the pressure regulator
which had oxidized heavily over a period of years eventually leading to its failure and
leakage of Dibrom into the airstream as the aircraft flew. Improperly atomized Dibrom
will fall to the ground and has the potential to cause irritation and perhaps even
poisoning of animals consistent with complaints we were receiving. It is unknown how
long this Spray equipment remained faulty (it is possible the fault had just occurred) but
a leaking cap has the potential to cause the complaints we received. I told Patrick in
anger, told you there was a problem with the aircraft! They [maintenance personnel]
should have checked the spray systeml?. Patrick later told me to, talk about this
too loudly? in an attempt to prevent the knowledge that we potentially had forewarning of
this event and failed to act from becoming public.

I asked the ED and to replace all plastic caps on all aircraft (6 in total) with
upgraded metal caps sold by the manufacturer to avoid future incidents (which we had
in inventory but had not installed). When the caps were not replaced I requested again
in approximately August, and again in December of 2016. The spill, nor improper
release of Dibrom was ever reported to the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services, nor the EPA and constitute an improper release of pesticide
materials in violation of section 487.031 (0) and potentially of Florida State Statutes
among other possible violations. To the best of my knowledge, aged and oxidized
plastic caps remain on a least one aircraft and although not yet faulty (to the best of my
knowledge) should be replaced with a more durable material. I verbally relayed to
Commissioner Chapman that there was a 1) fault in the aerial spray system but could
not be sure when the fault occurred and 2) that it was possible that the fault was related
to complaints received during the summer of2016.

In approximately August 11 of 2016, a mission over the Ave Maria, Immokalee
areas was to be conducted by two aircraft working as a pair to cover the acreage
required. One aircraft had trouble and returned to headquarters. The second aircraft
also had trouble with its GPS (wingman) guidance system to target the distribution of
adulticide (Dibrom) spray. The pilot continued the mission alone despite the lack of
aerial guidance. The guidance system error led to an unusable file that would not
display the flight track information. The next morning, using the ADSB GPS locator and
the web site ?flightawarecom?, I was able to print a map detailing the location of the
aircraft during the spray mission. The aircraft flew in a haphazard manner without GPS
guidance sometimes doubling the spray lines over the area. To me this seemed like a
violation of F.S. 487.031 Operating an aircraft mission without spray guidance is
potentially harmful to the public health and welfare and makes targeting an intended
area very difficult if not impossible. I printed a copy of this map from flight aware gave it
to the ED and told the ED that it needed to be addressed since the CMCD may be in
violation of label laws or other state statutes. To my knowledge neither DACS nor EPA
was informed of this improper release of adulticide (Dibrom) material. To my knowledge
the map showing the actual track and Spray pattern of the aircraft (via flightawarecom)
was discarded.

In June of 2017, a helicopter mission was planned for a portion of the Marco
Island using Dibrom. Upon return of the mission and downloading of the flight data is
was clear that areas outside of the intended spray zone were also treated in violation of
F.S. 487.031 The Director of Operations D00 and I contacted the Executive
Director and explained that the pilot improperly applied pesticide outside of an area
intended for pesticide. No action was taken by the ED. After approximately a week, 
verbally relayed the circumstances to Commissioner Chapman as I had concerns that
our treatment outside of the intended target area may harm public health or welfare. To
the best of my knowledge Commissioner Chapman took up the matter with the ED. I am
unaware of any notification to any regulatory agencies of this incident.

In approximately July of 2017, a hose within one of the Skyvan aircraft burst
during flight and leaked an unknown amount of Dibrom within the aircraft. The aircraft

was parked on Friday morning after the mission and the Dibrom was left for a weekend
until Monday morning. To the best of my knowledge, an attempt was made to limit
disclosure of this incident within the organization by those with direct knowledge. When
this incident was mentioned, overheard employees said ?be mole will tell the
board members!? referencing an ?anonymous? (my own) employee?s conversations with
board members about potential safety issues and legal violations. I heard about the
Dibrom spill and went to the hanger to investigate. Upon arriving in the hangar, a
maintenance technician was disassembling the floor of the aircraft and washing away
the Dibrom with water. I do not know if this release exceeded the reportable quantity but
suspect that it did. I implored the ED to hold 1: hold those accountable who let an
aircraft sit for three days with leaked Dibrom inside (Dibrom is very oxidative to
aluminum and will essentially destroy an aircraft in days) and to 2: address our spill
reporting and/or cleanup procedures with those who work with Dibrom. To the best of
my knowledge, I am not aware of any administrative or procedural actions taken to
prevent an accident like this in the future.

In approximately July of 2017, I asked for a meeting with the ED to discuss,
among other issues, the violations that was privy to and the need to increase
accountability, transparency, responsibility, and integrity with regard to pesticide
applications. My attempt at bringing attention to this issue caused intense disagreement
between the ED and myself. In this conversation I was told that, ?If you are not happy
with the way I am running this place then maybe you should leave [employment at the
district]?. No more attempts were made by myself to disclose violations to the ED.

On September 23rd of 2017, the CMCD was asked by FDACS and the Collier
EOC to conduct an emergency spray mission after hurricane Irma for the areas of
Everglades City, Copeland, Plantation Island and Chokoloskee. The mission
parameters and boundaries were drawn by the D00 and myself to exclude all water,
wetlands, protected federal lands and protected state lands. In addition, the ED asked
that the Port of the Islands area be scheduled for treatment as well even though this
area was not specified in the original request from the Collier County Emergency
Operations Center. When the mission returned and the data was downloaded, the
boundaries over water were ignored and pesticide was released over open water
especially in the Port of the Islands area in violation of the Dibrom product label and
F.S. 487.031 The release was made with no offset programed into the guidance
system to account for wind thereby directly targeting open water for pesticide
application and not mosquitoes. In addition, small areas of surrounding protected
federal and state lands were also likely treated. To the best of my knowledge this
incident is still unreported.

On October 20th of 2017 a second mission was conducted in the same areas as
the September 23rd mission. During this mission the pilot treated Everglades city first in
a north-south part at maximum label rate for Zenivex E20 and then in an east-west
pattern thereby doubling the treatment in this area and in direct violation ofthe label.
The treatment was 2X beyond the maximum label of .6 oz per acre. On Friday October
20th, the D00 showed me the post-spray mission map with the violation. This map was

to be submitted to FEMA for reimbursement for post?hurricane operations (at 
instruction). I suggested to the D00 that would not accept a spray map that
did not show the details of the mission and that the D00 present a full-size map that
would demonstrate the misapplication to FEMA. I strongly suspected that the spray
mission was in violation of the label (as was the first mission) and I did not want an
CMCD employee to misrepresent the map or the parameters of the treatment to FEMA
or the EPA. After I left work on Friday, the D00 asked the ED about which map to
present to FEMA for reimbursement. To the best of my knowledge, the ED told the DOC
to present the map which was scaled out which obfuscated the violation of the label by
dramatically shrinking the detail of the flight path.

Upon my return to work on Monday, October 23rd, asked the D00 what he was
going to present to the representatives visiting later that day. The told
me that, talked to Patrick on Friday and he wants the smaller [scaled out] map". I told
the D00 that knowingly presenting information that obfuscates or misrepresents the
truth to the federal government is likely a crime and under no circumstances should he
do so. The concurred and we sought out the Director of Administration Stacy
Welch?s advice and she also agreed that we cannot submit an application to EMA with
misrepresented or obfuscated treatment information. Therefore, a decision was made to
not seek FEMA reimbursement forthe treatments in Everglades City. implored Patrick
to tell FDACS and the board of commissioners about this incident so that the
organization could effectively deal with the repercussions. To my knowledge the ED did
contact the board and FDACS about this label violation.

Despite this, I have deep concerns about the first attempts to obfuscate the
nature of the incident by scaling the map smaller in order to avoid discovery by FEMA
and EPA representatives. In my conversations with the ED after disclosure to the board
and FDACS, he told me that only on Monday the 23rd (and not Friday October 20th) was
he made aware of the label violation and the post?spray map. However, the ED was not
aware that the D00 only printed the larger maps at my behest on Friday and the D00
had relayed to me the decision on which map to present first thing on Monday
morning (prior to any conversation I had with the ED). In my opinion, the ED attempted
to misrepresent the timeline of events to further obfuscate the decisions that were made
on Friday the 20th of October about using a map with obscured treatment information.

On the morning of October 25th of 2017, I asked for a meeting with the ED to
discuss my previous conversations with board members over the last approximately
year and a half. During my discussion with the ED about disclosures I had made to him
and other appropriate officials was told again that, is the second time we have
had this discussion. Perhaps you need to go on to another job?. Which suggested to me
that my position was at risk for disclosing legal violations to members of the board of
commissioners.

I made verbal disclosures of violations occurring at the CMCD in an attempt bring
daylight and accountability to the district and to prevent accidental or negligent harm to
the health and welfare of the public or CMCD employees. However, serious violations

have continued to occur and I can no longer bring them to the attention of the ED
without jeopardizing my position at the CMCD. Since my verbal disclosures of various
violations were clearly going to lead to retribution (based on my prior conversations with
the ED), and have not lead to changes in the organizational and secrecy culture of the
CMCD, I decided to write this letter to protect my disclosures and also to protect my
position within the CMCD from retribution.

Respectfully,