COLUMBUS — A judge's ruling that Ohio's Environmental Protection Agency wrongly removed the head of an investigation into contamination at two schools shows that the agency can't be trusted to enforce environmental laws, activists said Thursday.

        “Here we have a federal judge saying all the things we've said on the record about the massive, ongoing cover-up at the OEPA,” said Simona Vaclavikova, program director for Ohio Citizen Action.

        Administrative law Judge Thomas F. Phalen Jr. ruled this week that the state must reinstate Paul Jayko to his position as site coordinator for the investigation at the River Valley schools in Marion County, 40 miles north of Columbus.

        Mr. Jayko was taken off that project in June 1998 and sus pended for 10 days after agency officials accused him of drinking alcohol on the job and padding his expense account. His attorney, Dennis Muchnicki, said Mr. Jayko was assigned to minor projects and “busy work.”

        Judge Phalen ruled that the allegations against Mr. Jayko were unfounded and that he is protected under a federal whistle-blower law. Besides back pay and damages, the agency must also pay Mr. Jayko's attorney's fees and restore 30 days' paid vacation that Mr. Jayko had to take to appear in court.

        Carol Hester, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA, called Judge Phalen's ruling “wrong” and said the state will appeal.

        “To use the whistle-blower law, you have to demonstrate that there's been illegal activity on the part of the agency that was reported by the employee,” Ms. Hester said.

        “There's no proof that there was any illegal activity. Mr. Jayko made recommendations on what his thoughts were on what we should sample for. Management made a different decision. That's a professional difference of opinion,” Ms. Hester said.

        Marilyn Wall, conservation chair for the Sierra Club's Ohio Chapter, called Judge Phalen's ruling a “stinging indictment” of the Ohio EPA.

        She pointed to the judge's statements that the agency misrepresented health threats to the public at River Valley schools and told its employees to continue to give the message that there was no evidence linking the sites to leukemia.

        Mr. Jayko's reinstatement backs up activists' position that the Ohio EPA has been lying to citizens about soil and water contamination at River Valley schools, Ms. Wall said.

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