Rockdale County officials sought to silence residents from talking about the BioLab fire during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, saying the topic was off limits because of the county’s litigation against the company.
The move may have violated the residents’ First Amendment rights, according to a spokesperson for the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.
On the advice of the county attorney, the commission’s outgoing chairman, Oz Nesbitt Sr. — who lost his reelection bid and is leaving office in a few weeks — told residents not to talk about the Sept. 29 fire that caused evacuations and health complications for residents from the chemical cloud that resulted. He later appeared to give up, and allowed some residents to discuss it.
Many residents are demanding that commissioners revoke BioLab’s business license. Rockdale County has brought a federal lawsuit against BioLab and related companies, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act and negligence, among other claims. The lawsuit also seeks closure of the Biolab plant.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
The BioLab fire led to hospitalizations, and evacuations of about 17,000 people in the surrounding community due to the chemical plumes of smoke and toxic vapors.
“It’s understandable that the county couldn’t comment on ongoing litigation, but that doesn’t impact citizens,” said Paul Glaze, a spokesperson for the Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund. “And the idea that the company’s business license ... is subject to that litigation is just not true and probably demonstrates why Oz Nesbitt is not coming back for another term.”
Richard T. Griffiths, the First Amendment Foundation spokesman, said: “The public’s comment does not affect the county’s litigation position.”
“Counties are frequently involved in litigation and those topics, those issues, are often the most important for the citizens,” Griffiths added. “To have their viewpoints cut off arbitrarily is really problematic if they are choosing topics that people can and cannot talk about, particularly if those citizens are wanting to criticize the county’s response to what happened at BioLab.
“That is an attack at the heart of the First Amendment.”
Rockdale resident Corliss Turner approached the podium during the public comment period and told the county’s three commissioners that she has a lot of concern about BioLab.
“I do feel like living here in Rockdale County is life-threatening and it’s a danger just to breathe,” she said.
County Attorney M. Qader A. Baig interrupted and advised Nesbitt not to allow discussion on the topic. Baig later said in an interview that it’s a long-standing rule to not allow discussion of matters under active litigation during public comment. He said he does not believe it violates the First Amendment.
“Public comment is a privilege,” Baig said. “It’s not a right.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Nesbitt, after he and Turner argued for a short time, forbade her from continuing on the topic. About 10 people had signed up to speak about BioLab during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting, the board’s last of the year, according to county official Jennifer Rutledge.
Despite being told the topic was off limits, several residents managed to talk about BioLab anyway.
Cheryl Garcia, a retired nurse practitioner who lives seven miles from the BioLab facility, said from the podium: “What is it going to take for you to revoke a license for any business that does this to us?”
Speaking loudly, Becaleel Jupiter, a 25-year-old DeKalb County resident, told commissioners that executives of BioLab should be “imprisoned” and encouraged them to take away the company’s business license.
“This is a conscious choice you are making to let this facility keep poisoning residents,” Jupiter said, referencing previous chemical incidents at the facility.
BioLab manufactures chlorinating agents used in pools and hot tubs.
BioLab officials told the AJC last week that its top priorities are the health and safety of the communities in which they operate. Company officials also noted that it has not resumed manufacturing operations.
“We worked collaboratively with first responders and local, state and federal authorities to successfully remediate the situation at our Conyers warehouse storing raw materials used in the manufacturing of products that treat swimming pools and spas,” said a company statement. “We remain firmly committed to understanding the causes of the incident and have been cooperating with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s investigation, which remains ongoing.”
Issues at the facility go back years.
In 2004, a fire broke out at a BioLab warehouse in Rockdale that contained about 12.5 million pounds of pool chemicals and oxidizers, prompting thousands of residents to evacuate. In 2016, the Rockdale County fire department responded to a chemical decomposition incident of a swimming pool chemical giving off smoke at the facility, according to a Georgia Environmental Protection Division complaint report.
In August 2020, a major fire at BioLab’s Louisiana facility caused a release of chlorine gas and significant damage to that facility. And one month later, a chlorine vapor cloud rose from the BioLab facility in Rockdale due to a chemical reaction.
Tuesday’s board meeting was the last for Commissioner Sherri Washington and Chairman Nesbitt, who both lost their reelection bids and are being replaced by Tuwanya Smith and JaNice Van Ness, respectively.
Smith, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, declined to say whether she would support revoking BioLab’s business license. But when asked if residents should be allowed to discuss the issue during public comment, she said: “I think that people have a right to speak. It’s their right.”
Van Ness, who will take office as chairman on Jan. 1, said in a recent interview that she does not yet have enough information to decide whether she supports revoking the company’s license. She wants to make sure the commission balances health and public safety concerns with the need for jobs.
BioLab’s Rockdale facility employed about 241 full-time employees as of September, according to a recent report on the incident by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
“At this time, the Conyers plant has not resumed manufacturing operations, and any resumption of these operations will only be undertaken with approval from authorities and regulators,” the company statement says. “As we move forward, we remain committed to making things right for impacted area residents and business owners.”
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