CAUGHT ON CAMERA: City of Mobile employee spraying cement into storm drain

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — Video shows at least three City of Mobile employees involved in spraying off toxic wastes from a cement truck into a sewer drain that leads into Dog River.

Those employees sprayed off the waste in front of Josh Edwards’ home in the Terrace Hill neighborhood.

“I mean it’s aggravating,” Edwards said. “I expect more from my city. I mean it’s embarrassing.”

Edwards said he was at work Thursday around noon when he got a motion notification on his phone from his security system. But he didn’t think much of it considering he gets a ton a day.

When he came home and saw the mess he checked his cameras.

He said he contacted the city on Friday through the 311 tabs on their website. He also reached out to city councilman Ben Reynolds.

He didn’t hear back from Reynolds until Sunday and received a call from the city on Monday morning.

“They were not pleased at all,” Edwards said. “They said that their department is actually the ones that train some of these crews in the environmental side of stuff. And they’re absolutely trained not to do that.”

City employees were back at the drain on Monday morning to clean up the hardened cement.

“They used a sledgehammer and stuff and broke up the concrete that was hardened in the storm drain and shoveled it into the back of the truck,” Edwards said.

News 5 reached out to the city to get an update on the status of the employees in the video. They could not comment due to it being a personnel matter.

Mobile Communications Director Candace Cooksey said this in a written statement:

“We are aware of a video circulating of a City of Mobile employee rinsing out of the chute of a cement truck into a stormwater inlet. As soon as we were made aware of the video, the Public Works Department worked to identify the employee and is addressing the issue internally. We do not comment on personnel matters. However, we take this type of improper dumping very seriously, and the actions depicted in this video are in direct contrast to what we expect from city employees and citizens. We are taking this opportunity to evaluate our regular in-service training to ensure that every city employee is properly trained on the rules around our stormwater assets and why those rules matter.”

Sitting on top of that exact drain is an emblem stating that the drain leads to Dog River and no dumping is allowed, disappointing Edwards even more.

“Residents get threatened fines for grass clippings, and here the city is dumping toxins into the storm drains,” Edwards said.

City officials asked residents to call 311 if they see things like this.

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