Will last come mean last served? The city of Jackson accused several local companies of dumping millions of gallons of highly acidic wastewater into the Jackson sewer system that caused millions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit filed in Hinds County Circuit Court Wednesday.
The defendants are Gold Coast Commodities, Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services, Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services, and their respective owners. The lawsuit is posted below.
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 took no legal action against Rebel, Gold Coast, or Partridge-Sibley after delivering the cease and desist orders until this lawsuit was filed 3 1/2 years later. Meanwhile, Brandon, EPA, and MDEQ have all taken legal action against the defendants since 2016 . This website broke the news about the illegal dumping on September 15, 2020 and the Jackson violations on October 21, 2020. The city suddenly started taking action on Gold Coast three years after MDEQ notified Jackson - and a few days after this website reported the notice. This website also reported on October 21, 2020:
Jackson Ward 4 Councilman Dekeither Stamps twice tried to discuss Rebel and each time the Lumumba administration tried to go behind closed doors to discuss the problem. He tried to discuss the matter at a meeting of the Water Billing Committee in September but the committee went into executive session at the administration's urging. Mr. Stamps placed the matter on the agenda for the September 29 meeting but the discussion lasted all of two minutes.
City Attorney Tim Howard repeatedly suggested going into executive session to discuss Rebel. Mayor Lumumba said there had been discussions about the discharges and hinted the city might take legal action in the next few weeks. Earlier post with copy of emails.
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 Winston Kidd. Attorney John Hawkins represents Jackson.
Kingfish note: Last come, last served. Jackson sat on its butt for over 3 years until this website reported the MDEQ notice. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? One Councilman tries to learn the damage to the Jackson sewer system yet the Mayor and Virgi will only discuss it behind closed doors. The Lumumba administration got caught napping on this one. Again.
17 comments:
This is Jackson’s lame excuse for a failed sewage system. Jackson is at the back of the line for money which doesn’t and won’t exist. The next step is blaming past neglect of the sewer system on the three greedy entities.
The irony of Jackson, that can’t provide basic needs of water, is suing these companies for illegal dumping.
How much did Brandon and MDEQ collect from them already? Are they still in business?
Jackson is a clown show. 🤡
If Jackson had sued the very next day Brandon did it wouldn’t matter.
The cases would have been consolidated for discovery, cost a lot of money, and there isn’t enough money to pay for anything.
Truth be told…John can use Brandon’s discovery materials and likely do much less work and maybe add a few parties who do have money later.
KF now I know why you aren’t a lawyer.
Actually the point is Jackson was doing absolutely nothing until this website busted it on receiving notifications from MDEQ. Then suddenly jackson started doing something. Just like the EPA order, the admin only wanted to discuss behind closed doors because it got caught again.
You think a lot of yourself don’t you
@7:36, now we know why you remain anonymous.
John Hawkins is a very able lawyer. The City made a wise choice in retaining him to prosecute this case.
There is absolutely nothing negative about this story. It is unimaginable the damage these defendants did to the city’s water/sewer system. It is fantastic that Jackson sued them and hired John Hawkins to do it. The criticism about how fast it happened is petty and meaningless.
If there is a deep pocket culpable party, and I bet there is, John will find them. I look for an eventual huge payday for Jackson, with John getting his fee out of it.
Yet another smart move by Mayor Lumumba.
9:42 great comment. I agree with everything you said until your last sentence. Little Chokwe is an empty suit, a liar and a fraud.
Just note the Douglas’ let a multi million dollar Viking sport fishing yacht sit in the water at Sportmans Marina as a hurricane hit while a phone call could have had it dry docked and sink during a hurricane. Tom Douglas commented on Facebook after the sinking of the “Jacqueline” “shit happens”. He let that liability go to collect an insurance check knowing this was coming down and threatening his livelihood.
I don't think a business that has a $40,000,000 a year Federal Taxpayer Funded BioDiesel capacity, at just ONE plant, out of 4 states, is too worried about a couple of lawsuits. These guys rake in the dough.
If you knew La La LaBamba when he was an attorney, his reputation and work ethic, then one shouldn’t be surprised that he brings all that to his political career.
I assume they are going to argue this is a continuous violation, but how is this not outside the statute of limitations from date of discovery.
Do these individuals who run this "business" have no shame? Are they related to the so-called Adams Ponzi scheme?
It is inconceivable (to me) that the profit margin outweighs an adult's sense of morality. Speaking of morality, these Douglas (?) family members, and their associates, are "morally bankrupt" and hopefully justice will come to bankrupt them financially. I'm no lawyer, but with a BS originally in Biology/Botany and subsequently post-grad in other (medical/business) fields, it makes me sick to my stomach that these people exist and willfully pollute our waterways. No comment on the Jackson mayor, as he has shown his incompetence, in my opinion.
It reminds me of my son's questions, recently, to one of his fellow groomsmen (whom he hadn't seen since high school) at a wedding of a high-school buddy.
Question: "What type of work are you doing?"
Answer: "Venture Capital".
Question:"How do you reconcile that with your stated Christianity?"
Answer: "It's difficult. It eats at my soul, and I'm thinking of going back to study pre-med, so I can help people instead of leaving a trail of dis-mantled companies".
Yup, this was at the rehearsal dinner..."a drinking man's words are a sober man's thoughts".
Question: "What do you do?"
Answer: "I willfully pollute our/our children's waterways, groundwater, and ruin downstream estuaries, and collect lots of money to ruin your environment and shorten your lifespan".
"Everything is Downstream"-Tom McGuane, with credits also to Jim Harrison.
Best,
DWD
7:12, you ever seen where they live or how? Rez rats, nothing to write home about. boat is nice, and nicely floated by business so they can walk away from it at any time, but they aint no midas touch.........
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