A lawsuit alleges Holcim US fired an employee for reporting concrete wash spillage at a ready mix concrete facility on Airline drive in Metairie. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
A former employee of a cement and building materials company is suing for what he says was his wrongful termination for reporting wastewater pollution at a ready mix concrete plant in Metairie.
Ronald Burch, represented by attorneys Alan Kansas and Brian Katz, filed the lawsuit in May against Holcim US, the U.S. subsidiary of a Switzerland-based construction materials and cement company.
Burch, who claims he was fired in violation of Louisiana’s Environmental Whistleblower Statute, is suing for “a loss of wages and benefits, mental anguish, emotional distress, inconvenience,” and “loss of enjoyment of life,” according to the suit originally filed in 24th Judicial District Court for Jefferson Parish.
In the plaintiff’s initial complaint, Burch alleges Holcim trucked in wastewater from a concrete facility under construction in Port Sulphur for treatment at a different ready mix facility in Metairie on Airline Drive around Nov. 18, 2023.
The excess water supposedly caused the treatment plant to overflow, allowing “untreated wastewater” to flood “into the surrounding area waters,” according to court records.
In the lawsuit, Burch says he attempted to stop more trucking of wastewater two days later, as he had received confirmation that moving wastewater from one facility to another wasn’t allowed. He reported this to his general manager, Greg Sessa, and that Sessa told him to keep letting the trucks carrying wastewater do their thing, his attorneys claim.
Cement wastewater and concrete wash can be bad for the environment and human health, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Concrete wash is caustic, corrosive and highly alkaline with a PH of around 12, similar to that of ammonia or bleach.
When heavily alkaline material gets into bodies of water, it can alter the chemistry of the environment, causing plant death as well as damage to gills and reproductive structures in fish, the EPA has found. Humans can also be affected with irritated skin and eye damage.
The lawsuit says Burch brought up the incident again, once to Holcim’s internal environmental safety report network known as Boots on the Ground and again to Holcim environment and safety employees at a Dec. 1, 2023, meeting.
An hour after that December meeting, Sessa fired Burch, the lawsuit details. Sessa initially gave no reason, and Burch alleges he had never received any previous complaints or discipline for poor performance at work.
Holcim has denied each of the allegations, only agreeing to the fact that Burch was indeed fired. When contacted, Holcim made no comment on the pending litigation.
“Holcim takes environmental compliance at all their operations very seriously and have operated in compliance with their permit per Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) at the site in question,” company attorney Gwyneth O’Neill said in an email.
Holcim has come under scrutiny from advocacy groups in the past for touting an environmental record its critics claim to be misleading.
Industrious Labs, as part of a campaign called Concrete Change aimed at lowering the concrete industry’s high carbon footprint, claims Holcim’s U.S. cement manufacturing doesn’t follow its own advice on environmental regulations and decarbonization, citing previous environmental citations in Alabama and Burch’s case in Louisiana.
“The allegations raised by the plaintiff are concerning for a number of reasons,” said Ash Lauth, a senior campaign strategist at Industrious Labs. “Holcim paints itself as a sustainability leader, but what the plaintiff in this case alleges is that, a) he both confirmed this practice was against company policy internally, and b) that he was fired for raising these questions.”
This lawsuit and Industrious Labs’ claims come right before Holcim is set to offer shares of the company for sale in the United States for the first time.
“We think that Holcim has a moment right now, in advance of this much lauded IPO sometime next year, to actually make good on a plan to decarbonize and clean up its legacy pollution,” Lauth said.
The lawsuit is in the discovery phase right now, with both Burch’s and Holcim’s legal teams gathering evidence to present before the court. The case has since been moved to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, as Holcim US is based out of a different state than Burch. A jury trial is currently set for April.