For immediate release: December 23, 2008 (08-196)

Contacts:
Donn Moyer, Communications Office 360-236-4076
Allison Cook, Communications Office 360-236-4022

OLYMPIA ¾ A health law judge has upheld a state Department of Health decision to suspend the license of the water system operator at a Toppenish beef-processing plant. Operator Sherry Byers-Eddy appealed the agency’s suspension notice last year. The regulatory action was based on charges she did not adequately warn employees about E. coli contamination in the plant’s drinking water system.

Byers-Eddy was serving as the certified water-works operator at Washington Beef LLC in June 2007 when samples from the drinking water system showed the presence of E. coli bacteria. The Department of Health later charged her with jeopardizing the health of nearly 800 employees and federal food safety inspectors by waiting several days to post state-required warnings where they would be seen.

In the final order upholding the suspension, the health law judge concluded that Byers-Eddy, "...committed acts of gross negligence..." by failing to meet the state notification requirements.

The six month suspension took effect December 12, 2008; Byers-Eddy may continue to appeal.

"It’s vital that water system operators meet their obligation to protect the health of people they serve, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that happens," said Gregg Grunenfelder, assistant secretary of the agency’s Environmental Health division.

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