On October 28, 2005, more than 250 Jefferson, Iowa residents, represented by attorneys from LaMarca & Landry, PC, filed a lawsuit against West Central Cooperative in the Iowa District Court for Greene County. The parties to this lawsuit include homeowners, business owners, and people who work at nearby job sites, such as MicroSoy, Electrolux, and American Concrete.
Causes of action include nuisance, negligence, trespass, res ipsa loquitur, and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity. The claims stem from numerous environmental and health changes that have occurred since the West Central Cooperative’s soy chlorination plant in Jefferson, Iowa, began operations on February 14, 2005. These issues stem essentially from the emission of hydrogen chloride, hydrochloric acid and particulate matter from the soybean chlorination plant. containing one or both of these chemicals. Soy Chlor is a proprietary feed supplement for dairy cattle that combines hydrochloric acid with soy products.
The lawsuit also alleges violation of West Central Cooperative’s IDNR operating permit for this facility, as well as violations of the Hazardous Chemicals Hazard Act and other applicable environmental laws and standards of care.
West Central opened the business, SoyChlor, in February. Since then, the plant’s emissions have corroded metal buildings and other property within a mile of the plant, easing demand. The emissions also killed grass and other vegetation, killed wildlife, ruined windows and discolored surrounding structures and roadway rocks, the plaintiffs contend.
The plaintiffs claim that the plant has exceeded legal limits for emissions of both hydrogen chloride and “particles” or dust. When combined with moisture, the chemical turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance known to be toxic to humans and animals.
“It’s crystal clear, right from my front window,” said Jeb Ball, owner of a used car business just west of the SoyChlor plant on Jefferson’s north side. “I have to look at it every day.”
“We think we’re in compliance now,” said Nile Ramsbottom, vice president of soy and nutrition operations at Ralston-based West Central, but added that the company plans to increase the height of SoyChlor’s emissions tower to 94 feet to widen disperse emissions. emissions and dilute their presence in the soil. West Central also plans to install an additional scrubbing system, Ramsbottom said, adding that those steps combined would be more than enough to ensure the plant’s emissions meet legal limits.
The company has asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which oversees emissions from manufacturing plants, to allow the changes.
Dave Phelps, who oversees the DNR section that oversees such permits, said the department was prepared to grant the company’s request, but also expects there will be a public comment period and public hearing on the matter this month. He also said that recent tests showed that the dust emission rate from the plant exceeded the limit allowed by state law.
George LaMarca, a Des Moines attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, said a public hearing and the opportunity for public comment are good steps, but should have been taken before the plant opened.
Ball, the owner of the used car business, said Monday that his son, Colton Conroy, 15, has been sickened by SoyChlor emissions. A month ago, the high school sophomore collapsed at a football game, and a treating doctor blamed SoyChlor’s emissions for health problems that first emerged after the plant opened.
Since his collapse, the teen has lived with his maternal grandparents south of the city and his symptoms have subsided, Ball and his wife, Diane Conroy, said.
“I could run track and play football and everything a year ago, and I didn’t have a problem,” Ball said.
SoyChlor uses hazardous materials, including hydrogen chloride, to make a proprietary product that is added to dairy cow feed. Hydrogen Chloride is a noxious gas that can be toxic to humans and animals.
When mixed with moisture, it turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance capable of corroding motor vehicle finishes, pitting glass, and killing wildlife and vegetation, all of which have occurred, residents say, in the “fallout zone,” an area extending a mile or more in each direction from the plant. Gas, acid, and particles contaminated by gas or acid are emitted through a stack on top of a concrete tower at the north end of the plant.
“In Iowa, when you live in a community this size, you accept it because it’s agriculture,” said Jeff Ostendorf, a Jefferson cattle farmer who works for MicroSoy Corp., a maker of soy-based feed ingredients located across the from SoyChlor street. “This is different.”
Bonnie Burkhardt lives south of SoyChlor, across the street. One day last week, she leafed through notebooks and three-ring binders in which she has kept careful records of communication about the dispute with public officials, company officials and others in the community.
A notebook detailed the potentially damaging effects of the toxic substances used by SoyChlor, along with reports from doctors treating Burkhardt and others who say they have suffered health problems this year.
Once-vibrant children are now sleeping too much and quickly running out of energy, families say. Colton Conroy, a 15-year-old who stood over 6 feet tall, became out of breath easily and began to lose weight, his mother said. Adults with respiratory illnesses, including Norma Gross and Ron Lawton, said they had improved with the help of medical treatments, but now say they have gotten worse.
Last year, Gross was doing well, despite his chronic lung disease. But after he opened SoyChlor, he quickly lost ground, struggling to breathe. Her doctors at Iowa City University Hospitals, where she has been participating in a research project, urged her to move, she said. But she’s a lifelong resident, and she and her husband raised 10 children here. Gross doesn’t want to live anywhere else.
Also alarming to Gross and Burkhardt is the loss of wildlife. Gone are the pigeons that used to perch on tall grain storage structures north of the SoyChlor plant, they said. Gone are the blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches and other birds that used to roost at the many feeders in Gross’s backyard. He hasn’t seen a bird in weeks.
“It was like all of a sudden there were no birds anymore, not even sparrows,” said Gross, who lives in a tidy trailer park about a mile from the plant.
In addition, stains have appeared on the finish of vehicles and on the siding of houses and other buildings, including mailboxes.
Jefferson residents said the West Central insurer had contracted with a Florida company to clean the vehicles affected by the emissions. They also said the insurer had offered checks of up to several hundred dollars to residents claiming property damage, though recipients were required to sign a form releasing the cooperative and its members from further claims.
Burkhardt said she first noticed something was wrong when her skin burned while working in the flower garden. Eventually, he took her inside, where she showered to stop the burning. That was last spring, after spending several months in Florida with her husband, Chuck.
At the same time, Arletta Tasler and her husband were returning from a winter in Texas. Both developed a cough that has lasted for months, they said. Sometimes, Tasler said, she has coughed so hard that she has thrown up.
Like Burkhardt, the Taslers had no idea of the cause.
Burkhardt and her friend Diane Conroy spoke with neighbors and people who work at nearby businesses. Less than a mile from Burkhardt’s home, they found dozens of people with similar symptoms. They first noticed a strange odor, like the scent of a bag of empty beer cans left out in the sun for a day, Conroy said.
Then came the health problems. Then the stains on vehicles and buildings. Then the film on the windows and windshields could not be scrubbed off. And some noticed that their glasses had been chipped.
The women searched the Internet for information about SoyChlor and the chemicals it used.
The more they learned, the more convinced they became that SoyChlor was to blame.
“If you have this in your lining, if it’s pitted, think about what it’s doing to your lungs,” said Tasler, who lives with her husband of 49 years, Shorty, on a farm directly east of the plant where they raised the eight children.
Burkhardt, Conroy, and others contacted the city’s sanitation chief, public health nurse, and the editor of the local newspaper. They began contacting the government: environmental and safety regulators, US senators from Iowa, even the White House.
Conroy and her husband, Jeb Ball, contacted their attorney in Des Moines. She referred them to George LaMarca, another Des Moines attorney. LaMarca knew how lethal hydrogen chloride could be. The gas had incapacitated some of the victims in the deadliest fire in Des Moines history, which ripped through the Younkers store in Merle Hay Mall on November 5, 1978. LaMarca represented the survivors of the victims in litigation that lasted years and ultimately resulted in an undisclosed settlement for the plaintiffs.
He only has five words for the cooperative: “We want the plant to close.”
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