The James River Water Authority has strongly denied allegations of improper conduct during an archeological dig near the site where Louisa County hopes to draw its future public water supply.
In a 35-page memo released on Jan. 15, the authority’s counsel accused the whistleblower, Eric Mai, of misleading or false statements. Mai, a former employee of Circa, the Williamsburg-based company hired to manage cultural resource work at the James River site, made the assertions in October in a sworn statement provided to the Monacan Indian Nation.
“Counsel does not find any specific allegations in the Mai Declaration sufficiently credible” to justify further action, wrote Justin Curtis, the authority’s counsel and AquaLaw vice-president.
Curtis did not interview Mai or other Circa staff besides Carol Tyrer, the company’s president. He did collect information from employees of Timmons Group and Faulconer, which worked with Circa as part of the water authority’s team of contractors.
“JRWA investigated itself and found itself innocent. We are not shocked,” said Greg Werkheiser, an attorney for Cultural Heritage Partners, which represents the Monacans. “This reads more like a bad defense brief than a legitimate attempt to find facts. The Monacan Indian Nation reiterates its call for a legitimate independent investigation.”
The Monacans are pushing the authority to relocate a planned water pump station and pipeline away from what the tribe says is the ancestral location of Rassawek, their capital city prior to white settlement in the 1600s.
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