Gold Coast and its friends are not off the hook in Hinds County after all. The city of Jackson refiled a lawsuit against several companies accused of dumping highly acidic wastewater into its sewer system yesterday in Hinds County Circuit Court.
Jackson sued Gold Coast Commodities, Walker Environmental Services (dba Rebel High Velocity Services), Partridge Sibley Trucking, and their respective owners on June 9. However, the city withdrew the lawsuit on June 17. Defendant Andrew Walker and his company, Walker Environmental Services, filed bankruptcy in 2019. The case is still active. Earlier post.
Jackson filed a new complaint yesterday against Gold Coast, Partridge-Sibley, Thomas Douglas, Robert Douglas, Thomas Partridge, Justin Mahfouz, and Louie Garrett in the same court. The Douglases own Gold Coast. Partridge, Mahfouz, and Douglas are officers at Partridge-Sibley. Walker was dropped from the lawsuit but Garret is a new defendant.
Gold Coast Commodities processes used cooking oil and soapstock into animal feed and other products such as biodesel at its Brandon facility. Sulfuric acid is added. The resulting reaction produces waste that is later mixed with a caustic agent (usually NaOH). The waste must be kept at high temperatures or else it can't flow. The wastewater has one other dangerous feature: it is highly acidic with a pH that can be lower than 2 if not properly treated before it is discharged.
Brandon caught the company dumping highly acidic wastewater into its sewer system in 2014. The lawsuit states Brandon's sewer system connects to Jackson's wastewater treatment plant. Brandon sued the company in Rankin County Circuit Court.
Banned in Brandon,
Gold Coast Commodities used Partridge-Sibley to ship the wastewater to Rebel High
Velocity Sewer Services in Jackson. Rebel in turn dumped six million
gallons of the Gold Coast acid directly into the Jackson sewer system.
The lawsuit states Brandon informed Gold Coast in November 2016 it was going to place a monitor at Gold Coast's Brandon plant to "observe its disposal activities." To avoid scrutiny, Gold Coast allegedly used Partridge-Sibley to ship its acidic wastewater to Rebel.
Jackson had already hired Partridge-Sibley to haul away sludge from the Savannah wastewater treatment plant. Jackson accused the company of using its "intimate knowledge" of the sewer system to take advantage of the city. The company began hauling Gold Coast wastewater to Rebel. Rebel would then in turn dump the wastewater into the Jackson sewer system.
Partridge-Sibley allegedly placed a large storage tank
at Rebel. The lawsuit accuses the two companies of excavating Jackson's
sewer line and inserting a pipe into the sewer line. The other end of
the pipe was connected to the storage tank. The trucking company hauled
at least 3 million gallons to Rebel in 2017. Jackson charges "the
defendants causes thousands of separate discharges of industrial waste
into the City's sewer system over a period of several years."
MDEQ issued a cease and desist order against Rebel for the discharges in October 2017 and referred Rebel and Gold Coast to the EPA for criminal prosecution. The lawsuit states:
38. The extent of the Defendants ' illegal waste discharges is still being investigated. In late October 2017, the MDEQ visited the Rebel facility for an unannounced inspection. During the inspection, the MDEQ investigator discovered that the ALAR equipment at the Rebel facility was not being used to process Gold Coast's waste and was instead being discharged into the City ' s sewer system without any treatment of the waste. The investigator observed steam leaving the sewer system tied to the Rebel facility, and the wastewater had a strong odor with a thick, greasy material on the surface. Probe sampling of the wastewater revealed a temperature of 132 degrees Fahrenheit and a pH of 6.51.
39. The MDEQ investigator also took grab samples of the wastewater being discharged at the Rebel facility. The investigator placed the samples in an ice chest and transported them to the MDEQ's laboratory. After being stored overnight , one of the samples exploded in the lab because the sample had reached its boiling point during a digestion process used in testing for metals . In short, the wastewater being discharged into the City's public sewer system was so hazardous and explosive that a sample blew up in the MDEQ's lab.
The Justice Department filed a Bill of Information in
U.S. District Court against Andy Walker, the owner of Rebel.* Walker
pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the federal investigation.
MDEQ notified the city of Jackson about the massive illegal discharges at a meeting in 2017. The city sent its own cease and desist orders to Rebel, Gold Coast, and Partridge Trucking in October 2017. Public Works Director Bob Miller signed the orders. Jackson Deputy City Attorney Terry Williamson reported to MDEQ on October 30, 2017 that the city had JPD hand-deliver the orders to all three companies.
Jackson claims its sewer system suffered damages of at least $15 million. The complaint states Jackson is still investigating the damage to the system.
The lawsuit charges the defendants with negligence, gross negligence, negligence per se, and corporate officer liability. The city asks for restitution and punitive damages.
The case is assigned to Judge Tomie Green. Attorney John Hawkins represents Jackson.
15 comments:
Jackson should thank Gold Coast for what little water treatment the acid was able to do.
I'm betting that, if found guilty, none of THOSE defendants will get a "blessing" from Judge Green!
Hide and watch!
Guilty?
They won't be found guilty, it's a civil suit. The worst that can happen is that they are libel!
I don't know about all the legal ramifications, but I'd be willing to bet that if anyone was around when that sample exploded in the lab, they needed a change of underwear.
Do they hang the losers in a civil case?
Its always fun when someone incorrectly corrects someone. It’s not “libel”, it’s liable. *sigh*
>The case is assigned to Judge Tomie Green
That's really all that needed to be posted.
More popcorn, please! Table six!
You really suck at the law stuff…..despite 3 years of studying it and spending $150,000
What is the statute of limitations here? Jackson had knowledge in Oct of 2017. Are we only looking at things dumped since 2019?
Where and when is Andrew Walker going to jail?
One of the named parties filed bankruptcy. This would put a stay on the case and put it in bankruptcy court. Instead of losing jurisdiction (Hinds county) and the judge they want. Just release the parties that would prevent judge green from overseeing the case and refile.
10:37, the SOL in Mississippi for negligence is, generally speaking, 3 years, subject to the Discovery Rule and the Fraudulent Concealment of Claim statute.
Statute of limitations does not apply to lawsuits filed by a city. Miss. Code Ann. 15-1-51
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