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PAGE 6A — THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 24, 2020
Lawsuit .cont’d from 1A
This photo was included in a Department of Agriculture report from a January 2020 inspection of Smith Farn
property in Rayle.
Food, Victory Foods,
Pilgrims Pride. Leon
Jones Feed and Grain and
Benson's Inc.
The plaintiffs allege that
the disposal was done in
“in violation of a number of
laws and regulations, includ
ing but not limited to. the
Georgia Liming Materials
Act of 1996 and the Dead
Animal Disposal Act.”
They allege that there were
“consistent foul and noxious
odors and abnormal swarms
of flies and other invasive
insects.” Plaintiffs say they
have experienced irritation
of their eyes, nose, skin and
throat as well as difficulties
breathing due to the odor.
They said their wells were
contaminated with arsenic
from the practice and ren
dered unusable. One plaintiff
alleged that he “suffered a
serious infection after com
ing into contact with water
running off from the disposal
operation.”
The plaintiffs contend
that the Smiths are bene-
fitting financially by giving
businesses a place to dump
waste at a cheaper rate than
they can at a landfill, while
spreading materials that
“contained ingredients that
would shock the conscience
of local neighbors, including
but not limited to tampons,
toilet paper, and poultry car
casses and body parts.”
“For example, an inspec
tion by state inspectors
documents, ‘there appeared
to be feet, heads and other
body parts of very young
chickens incorporated with
the shells and feathers' and
that the pink colored objects
appeared to be chicken car
casses, which appeared to
comprise most of the load.”
wrote Kyle Califf, one of the
attorneys representing the
plaintiffs.
THE RESPONSE TO
ALLEGATIONS
Bob Mowrey, attorney for
Jeff Smith, responded to
questions from The Journal
related to the suit.
“This is a legitimate agri
cultural practice.” he wrote.
“These materials have valu
able organic content, provide
important nutrient values to
soil, and support crop pro
duction. That crop produc
tion is in turn vital to produc
ing feed for the cattle.”
Mowrey noted that Smith
Farms’ dairy farm operations
date back approximately 30
years. Smith Farms main
tains roughly 2,500 head of
cattle in Madison County
and Wilkes County, includ
ing both dairy cattle and beef
cattle.
“Smith Farms also grows
crops on properties located
in Madison County, Wilkes
County and Oglethorpe
County to provide high-qual
ity feed for these cattle,” he
wrote. “These properties
total roughly 3,400 acres.”
The attorney pointed out
that none of the allegations
in the suit come from within
Madison County and that all
plaintiffs in the case are at
least 20 miles from Smith
Farms’ Madison County
operations.
“Smith Farms has been
supplied only materials
that, according to the sup
pliers. have been registered
with or licensed by the State
of Georgia Department of
Agriculture,” wrote Mowrey.
“It has always been true that
many agricultural operations
in rural communities involve
some amount of smell. In
fact, the Georgia General
Assembly has expressly rec
ognized that fact because it
enacted into Georgia law a
‘right to farm' law designed
to protect farmers against
claims in certain situations.
Although the lawsuit is in
its early stages, that law may
bar some or all of the claims
in this case.”
Mowrey said the lawsuit
makes allegations about
the relative costs to Smith
Farms' suppliers of pro
viding these materials to
Smith Farms as compared
to the cost if disposal were
required.
“Smith Farms does not
have insight into its suppli
ers' cost structures and refers
any questions on that issue
to those suppliers,” he wrote.
“However, it is Smith Farms’
understanding that the ben
eficial reuse of the types of
materials that Smith Farms
obtains from its suppliers
is very common in Georgia
and elsewhere.”
He said Georgia law
encourages recycling and
this practice is a form of that.
“The fact that the
Department of Agriculture
regulates the agricultural use
of these materials through
licensing and registration
indicates this is a com
mon, accepted practice and
that the plaintiffs' effort to
characterize the practice as
improper is misplaced,” the
attorney wrote.
Mowrey said the plaintiffs’
allegation that water wells
were contaminated by arse
nic from the Smiths Farms
operations is not supported
by fact.
“By law, Smith Farms tests
groundwater at its Wilkes
County property periodi
cally, and the results have
not shown a problem, much
less is there any information
available to Smith Farms to
support the claim that there
are any impacts from its
operations that have migrat
ed off-site to any plaintiff
property,” wrote Mowrey.
“In fact, the Georgia
Environmental Protection
Division requested a round
of sampling at Smith Farms’
property — apparently
because of unfounded com
plaints from one or more of
the plaintiffs — and those
results confirmed again there
is not a problem, including
showing that arsenic, a nat
urally occurring substance,
was undetectable in that
sampling.”
Mowrey said the allega
tions in the suit arise from
photography of chicken
parts. He said Smith Farms
“did receive a one-time
delivery of off-spec materials
from a supplier of eggshells
that included some apparent
ly very young chicken parts.”
But he said the matter has
been resolved.
“This incident was report
ed to be the result of a
machinery malfunction at
the supplier facility,” wrote
Mowrey. “Those materials
were never spread. Instead,
Smith Farms worked with
the appropriate regulators to
ensure they were disposed of
properly. Since then, the rel
evant supplier has continued
to supply eggshells without
further incident.”
DEPARTMENT
OF AG REPORT
A report from a Jan. 3,2020
inspection by Jennifer Wren
of the Georgia Department
of Agriculture included pho
tographs of the Smith prop
erty on Centerville Road in
Rayle. Wren was there with
two representatives from
the Georgia Environmental
Protection Division.
She wrote that “piles of
whitish material near the
storage pond were visible
from the road.”
“A strong odor seemed to
emanate from the piles of
whitish material, and red liq
uid pooled around the edges
of the material.” wrote Wren.
“Shortly after our arrival, a
tanker truck (labeled as Leon
Jones Feed & Grain, Inc.)
delivered a load to the site.”
Wren said Smith told her
the material she observed
at the property was a “reg
istered lime product from
IsoNova, although he could
not provide any kind of label
or documentation.”
“I verified that IsoNova
Technologies LLC (for
merly known as American
Dehydrated Foods, Inc.)
does hold a current lime
license with the Department
(license # 36) with one
registered product: A.D.F.
Egg Shells,” wrote Wren.
“Upon closer inspection of
the material, there appeared
to be feet, heads, and other
body parts of very young
chickens incorporated with
the shells and feathers.”
About an hour later, a sec
ond load was delivered to the
site by Leon Jones Feed &
Grain. Inc.. Trucking.
“The material delivered
in this load was noticeably
pinker in color than the other
piles of eggshell mixture,”
she wrote.
“A closer view shows the
‘pink' colored objects to be
chicken carcasses, which
appeared to comprise most
of the load,” wrote Wren.
“Mr. Smith explained that he
plans to spread this material
on the surrounding fields as
a liming agent and then plow
it in, but he has had to wait
on clear weather to do so.”
She wrote that Smith told
her he “receives this material
approximately five days a
week, with around two to
three loads on each of those
five days.”
Wren wrote that “the
composition of the loads is
highly variable, with some
piles appearing uniform and
finely ground, while other
mixtures were more hetero
geneous.”
Wren and a fellow
Department of Ag inspector
returned to the Smith prop
erty on Jan. 7 “to determine
if the eggshell material had
been incorporated into the
soil over the weekend” and
found “no apparent chang
es to the stored material,
although flocks of carrion
birds could be seen feed
ing on the piles.” Smith was
told “he must dispose of the
carcasses in one of the per
mitted ways by Wednesday,
January 15, 2020.”
Wren visited IsoNova’s
Dahlonega site and met with
plant manager Daniel Rice,
who said the site is a “liq
uid effluent retention facil
ity (LERF) that “receives
hatchery waste/offal from 28
Georgia hatcheries.”
“This waste includes eggs
and euthanized chicks that
have been macerated at the
hatchery before delivery to
the LERF,” wrote Wren.
“Once the waste material
is received in Dahlonega,
solids are separated from
liquid through a process of
screening and centrifug
ing, which we were able to
observe during our visit. The
liquid that results is taken to
IsoNova’s facility in Social
Circle, where it is dried
and powdered as an animal
feed ingredient. The leftover
solids are delivered to Jeff
Smith’s property in Rayle
to be land-applied. The
Smith property is the only
farm receiving this material,
according to Mr. Rice. He
stated that approximately 15
buck loads of the material
are delivered to Mr. Smith
every week.”
Rice told Wren that hatch
eries compensate IsoNova
for taking their offal.
“IsoNova uses a portion of
that waste for animal feed
production, but must dispose
of the remaining, unusable
solids,” wrote Wren. “They
then pay property owners
such as Mr. Smith to accept
this material and land-apply
it.”
FARMING OR WASTE
DISPOSAL?
A point of dispute is the
nature of the practice itself.
Is it agriculture or not? The
defendants say, yes, abso
lutely. The plaintiffs argue
it's not about farming, but
disposal.
‘This waste disposal oper
ation. euphemistically called
‘land application,’ has been
used merely as a way for
all defendants to dispose
of these otherwise hazard
ous. noxious, foul, pollut
ing. pathogenic and odorous
wastes,” wrote the plaintiffs’
attorneys in the complaint
filed in August.
Plaintiff's attorney Chris
Nidel said he thinks the
spreading practice is terrible
and fits into a bigger pat
tern of companies exploiting
rural areas.
“What’s going on is dis
gusting.” said Nidel. “To me,
what’s interesting is this kind
of thing takes various forms
around the country. It’s going
on in rural areas. Companies
need to get rid of waste and
they’re using farmland to do
that. Farmers are getting paid
money to dump waste and
pretend they're farming. It's
sad to see farmland used as
dumping grounds for indus
try. It has an effect on the
environment and the people
living around that land.”
Beck said the “physical
photosynthesis of this is sup
posed to break down the tox
icity, and that's how they got
it filed as a soil amendment.”
“And that's what they call
it, but the Smiths were not
integrating it into the soil:
they were just dumping
layer upon layer, and this
stuff was just sitting on top
of the ground and in some
cases the sun would dry it
out,” he said. “And in many
cases, the heavy rains would
wash this into the waterways
and into the creeks. So that
became a problem.”
Blanton said it’s wrong to
call this “agriculture.”
“They were just a dispos
al site,” she said. “This had
nothing to do with agricul
ture.”
Beck said the term “soil
amendment” is “supposed to
add value to the soil, but the
only value that’s added is to
a bottom line, a private equi
ty firm’s bottom line.”
“It’s become a big game
of disposal whack-a-mole,
where you find an area that
will receive it, you dump as
much as you can until the
stink gets bad, and I don’t
mean just the smell, until
things get hairy,” he said.
“You face the oncoming
noise and then you move to
another area. And you just
keep moving until you run
out of rural areas. And then
maybe you circle back to
those.”
Jeff Smith, through his
attorney, said claims that the
practices are harmful aren't
based in fact.
“Smith Dairy Farms takes
great pride in farming our
lands,” he said. “We would
never spread products on
our property that we thought
would be harmful to our
land, to our animals, or to
our neighbors. We think the
lawsuit is meritless. We will
defend ourselves vigorously
and expect to prevail.”
Jlap all tlje blessings;
of tl)t sfeasfon be pours;.
Al and Anne Stone, Dottie Coile,
nsi, Nicholas, Reid and Rydge Dudley
Big thanks to all of the kind folks who have made our
year so special. We're very grateful for friends
and neighbors like you.
As we welcome the holiday season, we hope it finds you surrounded by
abundant happiness and good fortune. Best wishes!
HYMAN BROWN INSURANCE
AGENCY, INC.
P. O. Box 479 * 11 State Street • Commerce, GA 30529
Office: 706-335-3900 • Toll Free: 1-888-264-5069
Fax: 706-336-6782