The Monday morning after the agency's DuPont meeting in Raleigh, Jack walked down the hall in the direction of his office on the 6th floor of the Systel Building in downtown Fayetteville expecting to find an email scheduling a conference call to discuss the meeting. The email never arrived.
As he approached his office, Christine Robertson came out of her office and stopped him.
Oddly, she started whispering to him.
"They took you off of DuPont."
Jack was stunned. He had never considered, nor had he ever heard of, anything like this happening in the agency. He had expected that the two bosses, Director Keith Undercash in Raleigh and Supervisor Steve Mazda in Fayetteville, would want to learn more from him about DuPont Fayetteville Works. The fact that they never spoke or asked questions during a lengthy presentation about the large DuPont industrial site in Bladen County with its multiple chemical manufacturing plants and complex chemistry suggested to Jack they might be overwhelmed by all the information.
The two agency bosses had sat there in silence during the entire meeting. After Jack pointed out how the DuPont presentation was misleading the Dupont official did not respond and the entire room went silent. It was as if Jack did not exist. The bosses sat frozen and never spoke a word. It was as if the bosses were 'agency statues' placed in the room to give the meeting a certain holiness during the presentation by the DuPont representative, like the holy statues surrounding the students in church as they knelt in pews at Mass before the beginning of a Catholic school day. And the DuPont official was essentially the Bishop leading the Mass. While driving back to Fayetteville after the meeting in Raleigh, Jack had reflected on how it felt like they were there simply to get their marching orders and talking points from DuPont. Yes, the company is powerful. But why so much timidity? Why such a lack of professional curiosity? If confused, just ask questions.
"They gave DuPont to me," Christine added.
Jack went into his office and checked his email. Nothing at all. He stared at his computer screen swept up in a feeling of eeriness and foreboding.
Later that morning the Fayetteville boss, Steve Mazda, stepped into Jack's office and stood at the door. He stared at Jack with an angry look on his face, but never said a single word. After less than a minute, he turned and left, still carrying an angry expression.
What is going on here? Why is he angry? Jack tried to make sense of what was happening. Was the DuPont meeting somehow a major setback to Supervisor Steve Mazda's often stated goal of getting promoted by Director Undercash to an upper-level supervisor position in Raleigh where he and his family lived? It was a lengthy commute to Fayetteville and he was an ambitious person who wanted to be in Raleigh, the center of action.
After the meeting with DuPont, was Director Undercash unhappy with Steve Mazda, Jack's boss in Fayetteville, for the fact that Jack had spoken up and pointed out how the DuPont presentation was misleading? The presentation discussed their onsite groundwater monitoring wells at great length. However, it did not mention the scrubbers. And it did not address the most important issue of all - the persistent fluorocarbon chemicals going into the Cape Fear River and the need for an advanced or upgraded wastewater treatment system at DuPont Fayetteville Works.
Clearly, the plant needed an advanced treatment system to remove the persistent fluorocarbon chemicals discharging into the river, rather than the site's existing conventional system that futilely used microorganisms for wastewater streams that contained numerous chemicals that could not be broken down by microorganisms. Why was that not discussed? It was college-level Water Chemistry 101. And it was Civil Engineering 101. Were agency meeting participants supposed to sit there in silence during the entire meeting and then discuss it in a conference call the following day? Was that the Director's expectation? Why not say so? They had called a meeting, but it was essentially a DuPont lecture.
Why should the meeting jeopardize Steve Mazda's chances for promotion to a high-level position in Raleigh? Yes, DuPont is very powerful in North Carolina. But Jack was the one most familiar with the several DuPont chemical manufacturing plants at the Fayetteville Works site. It was Jack who described in his inspection report the glaring problem of persistent industrial chemicals discharging into the Cape Fear River, information that DuPont had shared with Jack during the inspection. Jack was the one who described the problem in writing and spoke up at the meeting, not Steve Mazda. The two agency bosses stayed silent during the entire meeting. So why the anger and reluctance to communicate with Jack?
Had the DuPont official or his bosses changed their minds about openly discussing the discharge of persistent fluorocarbon chemicals into the Cape Fear River and how their treatment system was not designed to remove the chemicals? Had they expected Jack not to include this important information in the inspection report? Was their primary concern that Jack put this important information in writing? Or were they simply not used to being challenged or contradicted by anyone when making a presentation at an agency meeting?
Jack thought about how it might take several days, but eventually Steve would tell him what was going on and why the agency wanted him removed from handling DuPont Fayetteville Works. It seemed likely that Director Undercash was the driving force behind the decision to remove Jack as the engineer handling DuPont Fayetteville Works. Keith Undercash, a licensed engineer with a degree from NC State University, was the top boss in the agency's Division of Air Quality. But why so much timidity and inability to communicate? Yes, DuPont has a lot of clout. Did DuPont request that Jack be removed? If so, why not tell Jack? Was there a 'secret meeting after the meeting' in Raleigh? Who attended it? Did Steve Mazda's anger towards Jack indicate that he was feeling terribly squeezed in the middle, with his goal of getting promoted to a position in Raleigh by Director Overcash now at great risk. Why not just ask Jack some simple questions and then listen? Just communicate!
Nearly everyone in the agency's division of air quality knew that Steve Mazda could be a bit hotheaded at times, but eventually after a few days he would always calm down and fully explain the situation. In Jack's view, Steve was a rising star in North Carolina's environmental agency. Harry knew all seven field office bosses and described Steve as head and shoulders above the others, with the possible exception of the Asheville field boss. He had a masters degree in science from NC State University, whereas most of the other bosses had degrees in engineering. Steve was bright, articulate, and not afraid of agency reform and modernization. He had a fundamentally curious nature, an essential quality in this type of work. He asked lots of questions, encouraged discussion, and wanted all available information put on the table for consideration. Steve Mazda's behavior with DuPont Fayetteville Works was completely out of character. Why?
Jack thought again about how he might have to wait several days to gain an understanding of what was happening with Dupont Fayetteville Works and Director Undercash. Maybe Steve would explain the situation to him next week after some additional time to calm down. However, Jack was wrong about this. It was going to take much, much longer.
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