Courts and Police

Sewer company sentenced in 2001 incident
BY JAMES GILBERT, Sun Staff Writer
Published on: August 23, 2005

One of the two sewer companies charged in a case involving the deaths of two workers in a sewer tank next to the Mesa del Sol Golf Course nearly four years ago was sentenced to probation in Superior Court on Tuesday.

Joshua Meyers, a representative of Santec Corp. of Castle Rock, Colo., stood before the bench as Judge Andrew Gould sentenced the company to 24 months of supervised probation for violating a safety standard and causing the death of an employee.

"In my opinion, this is black and white," said Maxine Lanser, one of the workers’ widow who traveled from Colorado to attend the hearing. "This is something that never should have happened."

As a condition of the probation, Santec has to implement a safety program that complies with safety standards regarding confined spaces as governed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Also, in order to ensure the safety program is adequate, the inspection and training section of the Arizona Department of Safety and Health needs to inspect Santec’s operation in Arizona at least annually and file a report with the Yuma County Adult Probation Department.

Santec must also pay $30,000 in restitution, under a plea agreement the company agreed to in July. Of that money, $28,895 will go to the state as a fine and the remaining $1,104 to Lanser.

Under the plea agreement’s terms, in exchange for pleading guilty to the charge, three other counts of endangerment will be dismissed.

Far West Water and Sewer Incorporated is charged with two counts of manslaughter, five counts of endangerment and one count each of negligent homicide and assault in the case.

Far West president Brent Weidman has been charged with two counts of manslaughter one count of assault and five counts of endangerment.

According to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, the two workers who died, James Gamble, 26, and Gary Lanser, 62, were overcome by toxic sewage gases while working on an underground sewer tank on Oct. 24, 2001, near the second hole of the Mesa del Sol Golf Course.

The crew had been working on the tank replacing pumps and other equipment throughout the day and was getting ready to leave the work site when the accident occurred.

The AG’s Office reported that Gamble entered the tank to remove a plug that was blocking the tank. While he was still inside the tank, crew chief Connie Charles, a Far West Water & Sewer employee who has also been charged in the case, allegedly turned on a pump running sewage into the tank through another line. Charles has been charged with two counts of negligent homicide and five counts of endangerment in the industrial accident.

Gamble inhaled sewage gas and immediately collapsed in the tank, according to the AG’s office. Lanser, who was employed by Santec, went into the tank to try and save Gamble, but he, too, was overcome. A third worker, Nathan Garrett, went down a ladder in the tank but didn’t make it all the way down. He survived, but suffered lung damage, according to the AG’s office.

Charles went down the ladder after Garrett and she, too, breathed the toxic gas. However, she was able to get out and call for help.

An investigation found the air in the tank had not been tested during the day of the incident, that workers weren’t properly trained and that required safety and rescue procedures weren’t followed, the Attorney General’s Office said.



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