Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Jackson to Sue Trio for Illegal Dumping

 The city of Jackson will finally sue several companies that dumped millions of gallons of acidic wastewater into the sewer system.  The agenda for today's Jackson City Council meeting includes a motion to sue Gold Coast Commodities, Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services, and Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services.  However, this being Jackson, nothing is ever simple.  The motion includes language to hire the same attorneys that walked away with $30 million in the Siemen's settlement.

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. Brandon sued the company in Rankin County Circuit Court.  Banned in Brandon, Gold Coast Commodities used Partridge-Sibley to shipp 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. 

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 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 Partrigde 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 since delivering the cease and desist orders.   This website 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.

A few weeks turned into six months.  

The motion states the firms will earn a contingency fee of 25% from the net recovery.  Mr. Thompson is one of the Mayor's largest campaign donors. 


 

Kingfish note: The only reason Jackson is taking action is because of this website.  Ignored were the MDEQ notices until this website reported their existence in October.  Councilman Dekeither Stamps tried to address this matter at City Council meetings but either Virgi Lindsay or the Mayor used every tactic possible to shut down all discussion. It's clear the Lumumba Administration got caught napping and was scrambling to figure out what to do. 

This is an environmental lawsuit.  Period.  It does not need a criminal defense lawyer or a connected local lawyer. There are several very capable environmental lawyers in the Jackson area.  John Brunini, John Milner, and Keith Turner are but a few (although Mr. Turner is probably has a conflict due to his representation of Brandon in this matter.).  The Mayor is hiring the same group that got $30 million out of the Siemen's deal. What exactly is so special about these guys? For all the Mayor's talk about supporting local businesses, he sure can't wait to ship the lucrative lawsuits to a bunch of white lawyers in out of state.

Kenneth Stokes asked a good question at a recent press conference: How much Siemen's money stayed with the lawyers? 


19 comments:

Anonymous said...

KF, until some of his own start carrying torches in the streets and asking questions about these guys he's sending this work to, no one in Jackson will give a damn. This jive turkey is spreading the wealth and paying the players who will eventually get him on the national progressive/liberal scene. He's just paying his dues with Jackson's money and no one will get in his face and call him out on it.

Anonymous said...

So there is already an admission of guilt, how much work would these attorneys have to do? Why not pay hourly at this point.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Progressive is bankrolling money that is laundered through legal fees for his future campaigns.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing special about the law firm the mayor wants to hire. There is plenty of local legal talent who could handle the litigation efficiently and expertly. There's something fishy about Birmingham connections with the mayor.

Anonymous said...

Sue them and they go bankrupt. Sue them and win, you get 10 cents on the dollar for their assets and a claim against their pollution insurer.

Anonymous said...

I feel really lucky that this is the biggest problem facing Jackson. I sadly know that one of the accused parties is basically without any money or the prospect of getting any.

Anonymous said...

Other then Winston Thompsons and Lumumba pocket, what will the City of Jackson benefit. I noticed that Angelique Lee falls right in place with supporting Lumumba.

Anonymous said...

Like Patton pissed in the Rhine (he shouldn’t have and he changed his mind after meeting the people he was sent to “save”) I will piss directly into the Pearl, from the banks at LeFleurs Bluff

Anonymous said...

25% of the net recovery, which is stated to be the gross collections less advanced expenses. So these lawyers have a running clock at $705 and $400 per hour, and will claim additional expenses for travel, filing and other costs from any initial recovery, and they also get 25% of any that is remaining. Fair chances the attorneys choose to sub it out.

The city will pay more for the up-front expenses than on the net recovery. Jacksonians, hold onto your butts.

Anonymous said...

Recycling the Playahs...Key up the scissors scene at the Grammys.

Anonymous said...

chucway will love suing a business called rebel.

Anonymous said...

Whatever it takes to rid the planet of Gold Coast Commodities, I am in favor of. Good riddance.

Anonymous said...

I hope these storms today don't sink another Viking sport fisher.

Anonymous said...

Prosecuting an environmental case like this one is extremely expensive. The lawyers maligned on here pay 100 percent of the expenses and obtain no fee or reimbursement of their expenses unless they recover. Extensive environmental testing will be required, which will cost well in to six figures, probably more like $500,000. A well healed plaintiffs firm can go broke in one of these cases. Remember the John Travolta movie about the true story of the Boston plaintiffs firm that went broke in one of these cases?

Also, John Hawkins, an outstanding plaintiffs attorney who lives and works in Jackson, made the presentation to the City Council. I’ve had John against me and with me in cases. He had no role in the Siemens case, which, by the way, had a fantastic outcome for the City- $90 million settlement.

Kudos to Kingfish for publicizing these wrongs done to our City and kudos to Mayor Lumumba and the City Council for deciding to sue the wrongdoers.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, why don't they at least use a Mississippi law firm for these lucrative lawsuits?

Kingfish said...

Yes, I'm sure it is expensive.

However, there are good environmental lawyers in Jackson or the burbs who can handle a case such as this one and do it all the time. Brandon had no problem finding such a lawyer. Canton and Madison WA are going at it in court yet they didn't have to run out of state for their lawyers.

I'm assuming all lawyers hired are competent although one has yet to adequately explain why a criminal defense lawyer should be hired other than to be the black piggyback pass through.

Hawkins has a good reputation but he is not an environmental lawyer.

Anonymous said...

Where I disagree with you, KF, is not that Jackson does not have excellent environmental lawyers; it does. John Milner (mentioned by you earlier) and some of his partners are outstanding. The problem is that they defend cases for hourly rates. Their business model (high overhead and a deep bench) does not lend itself to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses up front and betting on a possible contingency fee years from now. I have never known Brunini to handle such a case. This fact limits your choices in this area, except for excellent plaintiffs attorneys like John Hawkins.

The only thing I know about the Birmingham firm and Mr. Thompson is that they obtained a $90,000,000 settlement for Jackson, which is an extraordinary feat. I can definitely see why the City wanted to go with a similar legal team in this case.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:58 while I don't 100% disagree with your statement, the $90,000,000 Siemens settlement was cut and dry. A first year law student could have won that case.

Kingfish said...

Funny how Brandon hired Keith Turner and is doing just fine in its lawsuit.



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