Federal board rules against BLM

RENO -- A federal panel has upheld an administrative law judge's ruling that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management illegally fired a former supervisor four years ago for speaking out about the health and safety dangers at a toxic mine site in Nevada.

The judge ordered the BLM to pay Earle Dixon two years worth of back pay and benefits totaling more than $120,000 in September 2006 after concluding Dixon had been fired in retaliation for his whistle-blowing activities at the former Anaconda copper mine in Yerington, about 60 miles southeast of Reno.

The BLM appealed that decision to the U.S. Labor Department's Administrative Review Board, which upheld the decision in an order issued last week.

The board also upheld the judge's order for the BLM to reimburse Dixon for $10,000 in moving expenses after he was fired in October 2004 and for attorney fees and costs expected to exceed $50,000.

The evidence showed "BLM's retaliatory motive in firing Dixon," according to the review board's ruling, written by Chief Administrative Appeals Judge M. Cynthia Douglass and Administrative Appeals Judge Wayne C. Beyer.

After more than five years of pressing his case, Dixon said he was glad "to have this vindication and achieve closure on this matter."

"The board found the true reason behind BLM's retaliation and recalcitrance was to avoid sampling that would show mine operations profoundly contaminated soil and water with acid, metals and radionuclides," he said in a statement Wednesday.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the decision marked "a rare pro-whistle-blower verdict" from Bush administration appointees.

The board rejected Dixon's request for up to $1 million in punitive damages.

"Nothing in this record would support an award of any amount of punitive damages, let alone the $1 million Dixon seeks," the panel said.

BLM spokesman Doran Sanchez said Wednesday the agency was reviewing the decision.

Dixon alleged he was fired because he publicized health and safety hazards being unearthed at the abandoned mine owned by Atlantic Richfield Co., including unsafe levels of uranium that he said state regulators knew about but covered up since 1984.