A whistleblower alleged that he observed “unethical” practices during recent archeological work at the location where Louisa County hopes to build a water pump station near the banks of the James River.
In a statement sent to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Eric Mai said he participated in an archeological dig at the site from May 2017 to January 2018 while employed by Circa Cultural Resource Management. He said Circa hired inexperienced staff, used minimal technology to save money and reported misleading information about the artifacts that were found.
The Monacan Indian Nation claims Rassawek, their former capital, was located in the area where Louisa and Fluvanna County want to build a pump station, working through the James River Water Authority. The area is also known as Point of Fork, given its proximity to the James and Rivanna rivers.
“My intent is to report an urgent concern about what I believe to be illegal, unethical, unprofessional and unscientific practices by Circa in its work generally and at Point of Fork specifically,” Mai wrote.
Justin Curtis, an attorney for the James River Water Authority, declined to comment about Mai’s allegations. He said the authority received a copy of the statement on Oct. 21.
The director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources previously accused Carol Tyrer, the Williamsburg-based company’s principal, of claiming she had a master’s degree in archeology when she actually has a degree in another field. The Monacans have said for the past year that Circa used improper archeological procedures, but Mai’s statement provides more detail than was previously divulged.
Circa was tapped as a subcontractor to Timmons Group, which the authority hired to manage construction of a pump station and pipeline to bring raw water to Ferncliff.
Mai said he worked for Circa for six years, and that the problems he saw on the James River site were similar to what he observed on other projects he was involved with for the company. He said he had urged Tyrer in the past to invest in mapping technologies such as GPS to ensure accurate data, but she resisted, citing the cost.
“Because of this mapping deficit, there were several times on the project when we conducted shovel test pits in the wrong location, well outside of the project area targeted for construction,” he said. Some maps created for the water authority by Timmons may be of questionable value, he added, because they were based on data that Circa collected.
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