(State News) – A lawsuit alleges that a company operating an alternative fuels plant in the eastern Iowa town of Marengo, lied to and may have bribed, public officials before a massive explosion injured workers there in 2022. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Tali Washburn, a Pottawattamie County woman who worked for the C6-Zero company as its government relations director, is now suing the company, six of its affiliates and several company officials in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

In December 2022, C6-Zero’s roof-shingle recycling plant in Marengo was rocked by a massive explosion that injured more than a dozen people and resulted in a partial evacuation of the town.

As part of her lawsuit, Washburn alleges that long before the explosion, company officials told her they had purchased a house from the Marengo city official tasked with approving the plant’s emergency safety plan. The purchase was then put in someone else’s name to obscure C6-Zero’s involvement, the lawsuit claims.

In 2023, a judge ordered the company to pay a $95,700 fine for workplace safety violations that contributed to the explosion. The state has since sued the company for $1.5 million in expenses caused by the cleanup of contaminated water at the Marengo site. A trial in that case is scheduled for later this year.

According to Washburn’s lawsuit, she was hired by C6-Zero in March 2020. In mid-2021, she claims, she “blew the whistle” on corporate wrongdoing by contacting the company’s CEO, general counsel and chief operating officer. The lawsuit alleges she then hired a former federal prosecutor as her own legal counsel and “confronted” the company about what she considered to be safety issues, loan falsification, tax issues and “interference” with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. In January 2022, she claims, the company placed her on administrative leave and threatened her with a lawsuit for defamation. In July 2022, she alleges, she was fired and three months later disclosed her concerns to an unspecified “Iowa government official.”

Her lawsuit seeks damages for breach of contract, unpaid wages, fraudulent misrepresentation and civil conspiracy. C6-Zero and company officials named in have yet to file a response to the allegations.

The problems began, Washburn alleges, shortly after she was hired to help C6-Zero clear regulatory hurdles in developing recycling technology that would turn asphalt into oil. According to the lawsuit, C6-Zero’s biggest problem at that time was that it was unable to use patented technology due to various state agencies classifying the business as a recycler, a stockpiler of solid waste and a potential generator of hazardous waste. Washburn alleges she “developed a pathway” for C6-Zero to successfully obtain a “comfort letter” from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwest regional office to launch its business in Iowa. That letter was intended to “validate” the company’s commitment to operate, within the EPA’s own framework, as a manufacturer and not a generator of hazardous waste.

Shortly thereafter, the lawsuit claims, company officials directed Washburn to send a grant application to the state seeking a forgivable multimillion-dollar loan. State officials denied the grant request, allegedly citing issues with the company’s background. Months later, the lawsuit claims, company officials told Washburn they had “embellished” the grant application in part by stating they would hire 260 employees and have a total annual payroll of $3.7 million.

In addition, the lawsuit states, Chief Operating Officer Christopher Koehn “specifically and purposefully lied on the application” by listing a particular individual with a good reputation as C6-Zero’s chief technology officer. Koehn confessed to Washburn that the man never had any official role in the company and his name was included merely to bolster the company’s bid for the forgivable loan, the lawsuit alleges.