Source: http://www.wsbtv.com, October 19, 2015
A South Fulton County landowner, M&K Warehouses, has agreed to clean up a site where a tenant dumped toxic sludge near the Chattahoochee River.
The property is located along Frederick Court just south of Interstate 20, and was rented to American Sealcoat Manufacturing at the time.
Earlier this year, a Channel 2 Action News investigationrevealed disturbing video of a thick oily sludge dripping into a drainage ditch; the company had already skipped town.
“As we’re walking up to this pipe they were just pouring all of this black oily sludge discharge into the stream. It was one of the worst environmental violations I’ve ever seen,” said Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Jason Ulseth.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer tracked down a former American Sealcoat worker who said the dumping was intentional, and directed by the owner after one of the tanks leaked thousands of gallons inside the warehouse.
“We would scrape it out, like out to the outside and move it all that way,” said Justin Fountain, “I guess they thought they could get away with it. They knew they weren’t supposed to put it into the river.”
One of the owners of American Sealcoat denied it.
Ulseth filed lawsuits against both companies after soil and water tests revealed high levels of carcinogens from the pollution.
In August, a federal judge ordered American Sealcoat to pay a $10 million fine.
“They refused to take any responsibility for what happened and eventually fled the state without doing any cleanup whatsoever,” said Ulseth.
His main concern was actually getting the site cleaned up, so he turned to landowner M&K, which, by law, is also responsible for its tenant’s actions.
“We’re very happy that we’ve reached an agreement with M&K warehouses and they’re stepping up and getting the site cleaned up,” said Ulseth, “They’ve already invested over $500,000 to remediate the soils, get all of the contaminated materials out and to go back and replant the entire thing. So a lot of progress is being made and we’re really excited about what’s being done.”
M&K has also agreed to pay for a supplemental environmental project to help improve water quality on another property in the area.
The company will also donate $50,000 to local organizations to help the Chattahoochee River.
Ulseth credits the former employee located by Channel 2 for blowing the whistle on what really happened.
He said, “It really opened up some doors for us and we were actually able to depose some of the people that you guys found, which provided some really good evidence on just how blatant the violations were.”