The Oglethorpe Echo
A 2020 lawsuit filed by several Oglethorpe County residents alleging sludge dumping against multiple defendants has made progress.
Eight of the defendants in the lawsuit have settled for damages, leaving one defendant that hasn’t settled.
The case will continue to trial against Jeff Smith of Smith Dairy Farms and Smith Land & Cattle Company, who did not settle.
Other defendants named in the lawsuit included Isonova Technologies, based in Social Circle, Victory Foods and Prime-Pak Foods, based in Gainesville, and Smith Dairy Farms, based in Comer.
Plaintiffs listed on the lawsuit include Thomas Adair, William Beck, Donna Blanton, Scott Powell, Wade Powell, Arnold Raymond and Ruth Wilson.
“We’ve settled with everyone, all the generators and haulers, and now it’s a case against the landowner,” said Chris Nidel, who represents the plaintiffs.
Nidel said the settlements have occurred since he and his firm began the discovery process during pre-trial.
Nidel, whose firm Nidel & Nace specializes in environmental law, consumer protection, industrial disasters and toxic injury litigation, said they were approached by Oglethorpe County residents dealing with the impacts of sludge dumping and wanted to “give a voice to those impacted.”
“The goal was to get damages and to get them to stop,” Nidel said. “Generally, the companies that we’ve settled with have paid damages and have agreed to not ship their material to the same properties.”
Soil amendments, often referred to as sludge, is fertilizer made of recycled goods. Previous reporting by The Oglethorpe Echo found that sludge can contain a mixture of up to 550 different ingredients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and other heavy metals.
The smell can be nearly unbearable and sludge often attracts pests.
“Birds and rats and flies swarmed around this nasty mess that had nothing to do with farming and destroyed people’s quality of life,” Nidel said.
While Nidel said he and his firm “completely support farming,” they “do not support the type of industrial dumping that is occurring on the Smith Dairy Farm and throughout the county and other counties in Georgia.”
“It’s just a way to get rid of industrial waste cheaply on the backs of the people that live in the area,” Nidel said.
Residents of Oglethorpe County have had complaints about sludge dumping dating back years.
In 2023, the county passed an ordinance that prohibits companies from dumping sludge within 100 feet of a property line.
“That’s not much, but it gives us some avenue to do some enforcement on the local level,” Board of Commissioners Chairman Jay Paul said.
Paul said the county has been “quiet” with sludge reports recently, and the only active site he knows of is owned by a company that operates in the sludge business.
Sludge complaints are often handled at the state level. Complaints regarding sludge need to be filed with the Georgia Department or Agriculture using the Soil Amendment Complaint Form on its website.
Nidel said the success of the lawsuit in receiving damages shows the power of residents’ voices in the matter.
“Our litigation to date shows how poor the oversight of these industrial disposal activities are, but also shows that residents can and do have a voice in the courts,” Nidel said in an email to The Oglethorpe Echo. “When they are willing to take a stand, positive change can happen.”