by John PlessA Soddy Daisy city commissioner is facing thousands of dollars worth of fines for what the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority called illegal dumping. There's a dispute over how much septic tank waste his company improperly dumped into the sewer system.Commissioner Shane Harmon said the problem involved an employee who he has since fired. He is negotiating with WWTA over fines and now questions whether election-year politics are behind someone making this up-until-now private matter a very public one.Commissioner Harmon owns Harmon Enterprises which does land clearing, excavating and septic tank service. He's facing fines of 4,000 or more from illegally disposing septic waste and grease collected from restaurants.WWTA attorney Chris Clem said their investigation started about six months ago after getting complaints from neighbors about their sewers backing up.Allen Lewis, owner of neighboring L.H. Lewis Tree Service, said he noticed plumbing problems at his shop when he "came in and the office was smelling and we spent a bunch of time and money on cleaning and all that."Attorney Clem said at least one of Commissioner Harmon's employees was dumping septic and grease waste directly into their lateral service line that feeds into WWTA's pipes.The law says waste trucks are supposed to dump their loads at approved treatment facilities and pay fees for each load. Attorney Clem said he and Commissioner Harmon are reviewing records to find out how many illegal dumps were made.Commissioner Harmon said based on the advice of his attorney he is not going to be making any public statements. But he did say that several months ago he fired one of his employees for "being lazy." Harmon said that employee off-loaded his truck's waste at work instead of driving the 22-miles to Dayton's treatment center to save time during long work days.Lewis said he understands the liabilities of small business owners who have to trust that employees are working according to the law. "Anytime you have someone working for you on the job site or whatever you are responsible for them," Lewis said.Lewis said Commissioner Harmon has always been a good neighbor who apologized for the trouble. He has no hard feelings but questions the motive behind someone tipping off NewsChannel 9 to the story."Yeah, I think a lot of this could be politically motivated, I really do," Lewis said.Attorney Clem said he'd like to get the investigation wrapped up by the end of July and reach a settlement with Commissioner Harmon on a final amount of fines.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cCIGRt_aTEc/mqdefault.jpg)