A livestock feed ingredient plant in Jefferson is making people who
live and work nearby sick, a lawsuit against West Central
Cooperative alleges.
More than 100 residents of Jefferson have sued the cooperative, one
of Iowa's largest farmer-owned co-ops, contending that the plant has
caused health problems and property damage in the city of about
4,700 people.
West Central opened the business - SoyChlor - in February. Since
then, emissions from the plant have corroded metal buildings and
other property within a mile of the plant, the lawsuit alleges.
Emissions also have killed grass and other vegetation, eliminated
wildlife, ruined windows and discolored surrounding structures and
roadway rock, plaintiffs contend.
The plaintiffs claim that the plant has exceeded legal limits for
emissions of both hydrogen chloride and "particulate matter," 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 plain as day, right from my front window," said Jeb Ball ,
owner of a used car business west of the SoyChlor plant on
Jefferson's north side. "I have to look at it every day."
Nile Ramsbottom , vice president for soy and nutrition operations at
Ralston-based West Central, said he had not seen the lawsuit and
would not comment on it. But he said the company had worked with
state regulators "to be in compliance with testing."
"We think we're in compliance now," he said, but he added that the
company plans to increase the height of SoyChlor's emissions tower
to 94 feet to more widely disperse emissions and to dilute their
presence on the ground. West Central also plans to install an
additional scrubbing system, Ramsbottom said, adding that those
combined steps would be more than enough to ensure that plant
emissions meet legal limits .
The company has asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources,
which oversees manufacturing plant emissions, to allow the changes.
Dave Phelps , who supervises the DNR section that oversees such
permits, said the department was prepared to grant the company's
request, but he also expects there to be a public comment period and
public hearing about the matter this month . He also said recent
testing showed the plant's dust emission rate exceeded the limit
allowed by state law.
George LaMarca, a Des Moines lawyer representing plaintiffs in the
case, said a public hearing and the opportunity for public input are
good steps, but ones that should have been taken before the plant
was opened. "We want the plant closed," he said.
SoyChlor makes a nutritional supplement that is fed to pregnant
dairy cows to prevent milk fever, Ramsbottom said. The company has
manufactured its patented product for about seven years, he said,
marketing it throughout North America. It used to be made in Adair,
but manufacturing was moved to Jefferson this year after West
Central opened its plant.
In a lawsuit filed against West Central on Friday in Greene County
District Court, residents and business owners contend the company
violated state law by failing to comply with clean air standards and
by failing to fully disclose to state regulators and to the
community the contents of emissions from the plant.
The plaintiffs are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, as
well as a permanent injunction forcing the closure of the plant.
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 physician blamed SoyChlor emissions for health problems
that first emerged after the plant opened.
Since his collapse, the teenager has lived with his maternal
grandparents, south of town, and his symptoms have subsided, said
Ball and his wife, Diane Conroy.
"He could run track and play football and everything a year ago, and
had no problems whatsoever," Ball said.
Residents
Fear
Soy Chlor Plant is Eating Away Town
Citizens blame health problems, property damage
on SoyChlor emissions.
- Taken
from the Des Moines Register
ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
November 6, 2005
Jefferson, Ia. — A prescription for a healthy rural
economy has made people in this western Iowa town sick,
workers and residents say.
The afflicted blame their ailments on emissions from
SoyChlor, a livestock feed supplement plant that opened nine
months ago on the north edge of Jefferson, a city of 4,600
people about an hour's drive northwest of Des Moines. They
have reported symptoms ranging from persistent coughing and
shortness of breath to skin irritations and burning
sensations in nasal passages.
Government records show that the plant has violated
air-quality standards several times since opening in
February. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has not
fined SoyChlor for the violations, and it plans to allow
SoyChlor to make changes that regulators and the company
believe will keep emissions within limits. But residents
fear that the changes, including increased production at the
plant, will only broaden the problem.
The dispute has pitted at least 150 townspeople against one
of Iowa's largest farmer-owned cooperatives and has sparked
a lawsuit to force the company to close the plant. The $5
million project received financial assistance and tax
incentives from local and state government.
The Jefferson situation is an example of how agribusinesses
— from large-scale hog confinements to packing plants — have
clashed with their neighbors and rural Iowa communities. The
situation also reflects the tradeoffs involved in the
cutthroat competition among small towns to attract new
business.
SoyChlor uses hazardous materials, including hydrogen
chloride, to make a patented product added to feed for dairy
cows. Hydrogen chloride is a noxious gas that can be toxic
to humans and animals.
When mixed with moisture, it becomes hydrochloric acid, a
highly corrosive substance capable of eating through motor
vehicle finish, 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
every direction from the plant. The gas, the acid and
particulate matter tainted by the gas or acid are emitted
through a stack that sits atop a concrete tower at the north
end of the plant.
Officials with West Central Cooperative in Ralston, owner of
SoyChlor, have declined to comment on residents' claims,
citing the lawsuit against the company. Nile Ramsbottom, a
West Central executive who oversees the plant, did say that
the plant complies with Iowa's air quality laws.
But last month, the DNR said SoyChlor had emitted more
particulate matter than allowed.
Plant changes proposed
Despite complaints and violations, the SoyChlor plant
continues to operate. The DNR has levied no fines or
penalties for the violations, said Dave Phelps, supervisor
of construction permitting for the DNR in Des Moines. The
company is working with the agency to correct the problems,
he said.
At the same time, the co-op has applied to extend the
emissions stack to 94 feet, as well as to raise its
emissions limit. The DNR is prepared to grant the requests,
pending the outcome of a public hearing, Phelps said.
Company officials have said they also plan to add a
scrubber, Phelps said, which may negate the need for raising
the stack or emissions rate as much as previously planned.
SoyChlor also plans to increase production, Ramsbottom said.
That worries residents, who fear that a taller stack will
send potentially harmful emissions over a broader area.
Phelps, trained as a chemist, said that's true, but he also
said it would dilute their impact on the environment and
could help the company stay within permitted emission
limits.
Phelps also said, however, that the proposed changes were no
guarantee that there would be no more problems.
"We're trying to work with everybody to get it squared away,
and we think it will," he said. "It's a balancing act."
Residents file suit
On Oct. 28, about 150 Jefferson residents, workers and
business owners filed a lawsuit against West Central in
Greene County District Court. Plaintiffs include workers at
several other businesses in the area, including MicroSoy,
American Concrete, Electrolux and Sparky's One Stop, a
convenience store.
The plaintiffs contend the co-op failed to give adequate
notice to the public about the potential hazards of
materials used at the SoyChlor plant before it opened on
Feb. 14.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that they are not
anti-agricultural activists reacting to a typical nuisance,
such as livestock odor or grain dust.
"In Iowa, when you live in a community this size, you accept
it because it's agriculture," said Jeff Ostendorf, a
Jefferson livestock producer who works at MicroSoy Corp., a
soy-based food ingredient manufacturer located across the
street from SoyChlor. "This is different."
West Central had planned a public meeting for Monday (Nov.
7) at a Jefferson church to address concerns about the
SoyChlor plant. But last week, the co-op canceled the
meeting, citing the pending lawsuit against it.
Tuesday (Nov. 8) is the City Council election. West
Central's Ramsbottom is running, and he hopes to unseat Bill
Figenshaw, an incumbent.
Several Figenshaw signs, but few for Ramsbottom, dot
residential areas at the north end of town, in the shadow of
SoyChlor and West Central's massive grain-handling complex.
Health problems increase
Bonnie Burkhardt lives south of SoyChlor, across the street.
One day last week, she paged through notebooks and
three-ring binders in which she has kept meticulous track of
communication about the dispute with public officials,
company officials and others in the community.
One notebook detailed the potentially harmful effects of the
toxic substances used by SoyChlor, along with reports from
medical doctors treating Burkhardt and others who say they
have suffered health setbacks this year.
Formerly vibrant children now sleep way too much and run low
on energy quickly, families say. Colton Conroy, a
15-year-old pushing past 6 feet tall, got winded easily and
began to lose weight, his mother said. Adults with
respiratory ailments, including Norma Gross and Ron Lawton,
said they had been improving with the help of medical
treatments, but now say they have gotten worse.
Last year, Gross was doing well, despite her chronic lung
disease. But after SoyChlor opened, she lost ground quickly,
struggling to breathe. Her physicians at University
Hospitals in Iowa City, where she has been participating in
a research project, urged her to move away, she said. But
she is 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 sit atop tall
grain storage structures north of the SoyChlor plant, they
said. Gone are the bluejays, cardinals, goldfinches and
other birds that used to perch on the numerous feeders in
Gross' backyard. She has not seen a bird for weeks.
"It was like all of a sudden there weren't any birds
anymore, not even sparrows," said Gross, who lives in a tidy
trailer park within a mile of the plant.
In addition, spots have surfaced on the finish of vehicles
and on the siding of homes and other buildings, even on
mailboxes.
Jefferson residents said West Central's insurer had hired a
Florida firm to clean vehicles affected by the emissions.
They also said the insurer had offered checks of up to
several hundred dollars to residents claiming property
damage, although recipients were required to sign a form
releasing the co-op and its affiliates from further claims.
West Central officials did not return phone calls late last
week.
Similar symptoms seen
Burkhardt said she first noticed that something was wrong
when her skin would burn while she worked in the flower
garden. Eventually, it drove her indoors, where she would
shower to make the burning stop. That was last spring, after
she spent several months in Florida with her husband, Chuck.
At the same time, Arletta Tasler and her husband returned
from a winter in Texas. They both developed coughs that have
lasted for months, they said. At times, Tasler said, she has
coughed so hard that she has vomited.
Like Burkhardt, the Taslers had no clue about the cause.
Burkhardt and her friend Diane Conroy talked to neighbors
and people working at nearby businesses. Within a mile of
Burkhardt's home, they found dozens of people reporting
similar symptoms. They had noticed a strange odor first,
like the scent from a bag of empty beer cans left in the hot
sun for a day, Conroy said.
Then came health problems. Then the spots on vehicles and on
buildings. Then filminess on windows and windshields that
scrubbing could not remove. And some noticed that their
eyeglasses had become pitted.
The women searched the Internet for information about
SoyChlor and the chemicals it used.
The more they learned, the more they became convinced that
the culprit was SoyChlor.
"If you get this on your siding, if it's pitted, think what
it's doing to your lungs," said Tasler, who lives with her
husband of 49 years, Shorty, on a farmstead directly east of
the plant where they raised eight children.
Burkhardt, Conroy and others contacted the head of city
sanitation, the public health nurse and the local newspaper
editor. They began contacting the government — environmental
and safety regulators, Iowa's U.S. senators, even the White
House.
Conroy and her husband, Jeb Ball, contacted their lawyer in
Des Moines. He referred them to George LaMarca, another Des
Moines lawyer. LaMarca knew just how deadly hydrogen
chloride could be. The gas had incapacitated some of the
victims in Des Moines' deadliest fire ever, which swept the
Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall on Nov. 5, 1978. LaMarca
represented victims' survivors in litigation that lasted for
years and, ultimately, resulted in an undisclosed settlement
for the plaintiffs.
He has just five words for the co-op: "We want the plant
closed."
Posted by Spencer Fraise, owner of
http://www.iowahealthinsurance.biz
after experiencing the issue first hand while staying with his girlfriend's
mother. The SoyChlor plant can be seen from the kitchen window of her house
which is only a couple of blocks away.
Help Shut Down The SoyChlor Plant In
Jefferson
Use the contact information below
to tell the city of Jefferson to stop poisoning it's citizens!
City of Jefferson
City Hall: 515-386-3111
City Administrator:
Elizabeth Hailey
City Clerk: Diane Kennedy
Mayor: Todd Madson -
(515) 386-3730 - Jefferson, IA 50129
City Council: Randy
Bunkers - (515) 386-8486 - 305 E Wilcox
Way, Jefferson, IA 50129
William J Figenshaw - (515) 386-2658 -
1203 Riverside Dr, Jefferson, IA 50129
Craig Hertel - (515) 386-3970 - 409 N
Grimmell Rd, Jefferson, IA 50129
Larry Teeples - (515) 386-2460 - 403 E
Vest St, Jefferson, IA 50129
Nancy Teusch - (515) 386-4128 - 207 W
State St, Jefferson, IA 50129
Greene County Development Corp.
220 North Chestnut Street
Jefferson, IA 50129
Phone: 515-386-8255 | Fax: 515-386-2156
information@greenecountyiowadevelopment.org
West Central Cooperative (owner
of the soychlor plant)
406 First Street
Ralstan, IA 51459
Ph: (712) 667-3200
Fax: (712) 667-3215
Email:
sarahd@westcentral.net
http://www.west-central.com/
|
Jefferson |
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|
Office Hours |
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
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Address |
1500 N Mulberry
Jefferson, IA 50129
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Phone Number |
(515) 386-4144 |
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Fax |
(515) 386-8587 |
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E-mail Address |
jefferson@westcentral.net |
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Regional Manager |
Chris Nation |