In another setback for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government has sided with a Toledo man who is fighting to get his assignment back investigating possible links between pollutants and leukemia in Marion. The schools were built in 1962 on 78 acres the military used to burn or bury tons of highly toxic chemicals.
Graduates have higher than normal rates of leukemia.
A supervisor testified that high-ranking EPA officials disciplined and reassigned Mr. Jayko because they believed he was providing information to reporters. EPA officials have denied the accusation. Since filing the complaint, Mr. Jayko has been locked in a legal battle with the state. He continues to work as a site coordinator in EPA's Bowling Green district office, but the state has fought an order to reinstate him to the Marion case. Late Wednesday, the federal government filed papers in Washington, D.C., to intervene on behalf of Mr. Jayko, saying it agrees that the state broke seven whistleblower statutes by reassigning him.