Is a Soy Chloride Plant Killing Animals, People, and Children in Jefferson Iowa?
Tours TravelOn 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. 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 carrying out abnormally dangerous activity. The claims stem from numerous health and environmental changes that have occurred since the West Central Cooperative’s Jefferson, Iowa Soy Chlor plant began operations on February 14, 2005. These issues stem essentially from the release of Chloride. hydrogen, hydrochloric acid and particles from the soybean chlorine plant. that contains one or both of these chemicals. Soy Chlor is a patented food supplement for dairy cattle that combines hydrochloric acid with soy products.
The lawsuit also alleges violation of the West Central Cooperative IDNR operating permit for this plant, as well as violations of the hazardous chemical hazard law 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, the lawsuit alleges. The emissions have also killed grass and other vegetation, eliminated wildlife, ruined windows, and discolored surrounding structures and road rock, plaintiffs contend.
The plaintiffs claim that the plant has exceeded legal emission limits for 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 as clear as day, from my front window,” said Jeb Ball, owner of a used car business west of the SoyChlor plant on the north side of Jefferson. “I have to look at it every day.”
“We believe we are delivering now,” said Nile Ramsbottom, vice president of soy and nutrition operations at West Central, based in Ralston, but added that the company plans to increase the height of SoyChlor’s emissions tower to 94 feet for more widely. disperse emissions and dilute their presence in the soil. West Central also plans to install an additional cleaning system, Ramsbottom said, adding that those steps combined would be more than enough to ensure that the plant’s emissions meet legal limits.
The company has asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which monitors 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 a public comment period and public hearing on the matter this month. He also said that recent tests showed that the plant’s dust emission rate 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 was opened.
Ball, the owner of the used car business, said Monday that his son, Colton Conroy, 15, has fallen ill from SoyChlor emissions. A month ago, the high school sophomore collapsed at a soccer game and a doctor treating him 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 the city and his symptoms have subsided, Ball and his wife, Diane Conroy, said.
“He could run the track and play soccer and everything a year ago, and he had no 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 harmful gas that can be toxic to humans and animals.
When mixed with moisture, it turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance capable of penetrating the finish of motor vehicles, chipping glass, and killing wildlife and vegetation – all of which has occurred, residents say, in the “fallout zone”, an area that extends a mile or more in all directions from the plant. Gas, acid, and gas or acid contaminated particulates are emitted through a chimney that sits atop a concrete tower at the north end of the plant.
“In Iowa, when you live in a community of this size, you accept it because it is agriculture,” said Jeff Ostendorf, a Jefferson cattle producer who works at MicroSoy Corp., a manufacturer of soy-based food ingredients located across from SoyChlor. . “This is different.”
Bonnie Burkhardt lives south of SoyChlor, across the street. One day last week, he leafed through notebooks and three-ring binders in which he has meticulously kept track of communication about the dispute with public officials, company officials and others in the community.
A notebook detailed the potentially harmful effects of the toxic substances used by SoyChlor, along with reports from doctors treating Burkhardt and others who say they have suffered health setbacks this year.
Children who used to vibrate now sleep too much and run out of energy quickly, families say. Colton Conroy, a 15-year-old who was over 6 feet tall, easily gasped 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 SoyChlor opened, he quickly lost ground, struggling for breath. Her doctors at University Hospitals in Iowa City, where she has been participating in a research project, urged her to move, 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 for 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 blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches and other birds that used to perch at the many feeders in Gross’s backyard. You haven’t seen a bird in weeks.
“It was like all of a sudden there were no more birds, not even sparrows,” said Gross, who lives in a neat trailer park about a mile from the plant.
In addition, stains have appeared on the finish of vehicles and the siding of houses and other buildings, even on 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, although recipients were required to sign a form exempting the cooperative and its members from further claims.
Burkhardt said he first noticed something was wrong when his skin burned while working in the flower garden. Finally, he led her inside, where she was showering to stop the burning. 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 a cough that has lasted for months, they said. At times, Tasler said, he has coughed so hard that he has vomited.
Like Burkhardt, the Taslers had no idea why.
Burkhardt and her friend Diane Conroy spoke with neighbors and people who worked in nearby businesses. Within a mile of Burkhardt’s home, they found dozens of people reporting similar symptoms. They had first noticed a strange smell, like that of an empty beer can bag left in the sun for a day, Conroy said.
Then came the health problems. Then, stains on vehicles and buildings. Then dirt on the windows and windshield that scrubbing couldn’t remove. And some noticed that their glasses had been broken.
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 have this in your lining, if you have holes, 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 eight. children.
Burkhardt, Conroy and others contacted the city’s sanitation chief, the public health nurse, and the editor of the local newspaper. They began contacting the government – safety and environmental regulators, US senators from Iowa, even the White House.
Conroy and her husband, Jeb Ball, contacted their attorney in Des Moines. He referred them to George LaMarca, another Des Moines attorney. The Brand knew how deadly hydrogen chloride could be. Gas had incapacitated some of the victims in Des Moines’ deadliest fire, which tore through the Younkers store in Merle Hay Mall on November 5, 1978. LaMarca represented the survivors of the victims in years-long litigation and, Ultimately, it resulted in an undisclosed settlement for the plaintiffs.
He only has five words for the cooperative: “We want to close the plant.”