Rockdale County Commissioner Announces Lawsuit Against BioLab Amid Chemical Fire

Updated at 4:15 p.m.

Rockdale County Commissioner Sherri Washington announced at a news conference Monday that the county board plans to file a federal lawsuit against chemical manufacturing company BioLab and its parent company, Kik Consumer Products.

Washington, who will file the lawsuit later this week on behalf of the board, says the action comes after a fire at the BioLab facility in Conyers, Georgia, on September 29.

The accident generated exposure to chemical products that affected air quality in the municipality, in addition to posing potential risks to the health of community members.

Approximately 17,000 Rockdale residents were ordered to evacuate following the incident, while a shelter-in-place order went into effect for others.

Rockdale Commissioner Doreen Williams was one of the residents evacuated along with her daughter and husband, who suffer from respiratory problems.

“If you could see the image of that plume passing over our house, you would understand the severity of this,” she said. “It’s not good for the state of our state or our nation.”

Washington said the lawsuit will compensate the county for the “inconvenience” BioLab caused, as well as lead to the permanent closure of the Conyers facility.

“We can no longer stand by and allow a company to continually affect our current and future physical health, our mental health and our overall quality of life,” the commissioner said.

Washington cited that the company, which she claims has had four documented acts of negligence in the last 20 years, represents more of a liability than an asset to the county.

On September 14, 2020, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board sent a team to investigate the BioLab due to a chemical reaction that sent chlorine vapor through Conyers. At the time, a company spokesperson told USCSHIB staff that the incident was caused by exposure to water inside the facility.

In 2016, the Georgia Division of Environmental Protection received complaints of smoke coming from the facility that “chemical decomposition was reported to have begun in the eastern portion of the Bio-Lab hazardous waste storage area.”

Twenty years ago, in 2004, the Georgia Division of Environmental Protection fined BioLab $24,000 for a warehouse fire that contained millions of pounds of pool chemicals. The incident led to the evacuation of thousands of residents.

With the lawsuit, she and her colleagues hope to prove that “no company is above the law.”

“For three weeks I have heard the numerous physical, mental and emotional harm this company’s negligence has caused our residents and we want it to go away,” Washington said. “And I will fight until my last breath to remove them.”

Shayna Sacks, a New York-based attorney and partner at the law firm Napoli Shkolnik, will work on county litigation.

In an email to WABE, the following statement was provided by a BioLab spokesperson.

“We have not yet seen the complaint and therefore it would be inappropriate for us to comment other than to note that BioLab worked collaboratively with the county and other parties as part of Unified Command to successfully complete emergency response operations at our Conyers facility. . , always prioritizing public health and safety. We also worked diligently with the county to quickly obtain supportive resources for community members – including a process to be reimbursed for expenses related to the incident – and remain fully committed to making things right for the residents and business owners of the affected area. ”

Marisa Mecke contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from a BioLab representative.