A sample of waste from a Brandon-based chemical plant dumped into the city of Jackson’s sewer system and taken by a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality inspector exploded in a lab in 2017, according to documents obtained by the Northside Sun.
The wastewater came from Gold Coast Commodities, a Brandon-based firm that transforms used cooking oil and soapstock — which is a byproduct resulting from the refining of soybean and other oils — into animal feed and biodiesel using sulfuric acid. The wastewater generated by this process must be kept hot to keep it from congealing into a pipe-clogging sludge and is highly corrosive since it is mixed with a caustic material (usually sodium hydroxide).
Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services dumped Gold Coast’s wastewater into Jackson’s sewer system from December 2016 to October 2017, when the MDEQ issued an order demanding that it stop dumping the same corrosive wastewater into Jackson’s sewer system without proper authorization.
According to the lawsuit filed by the city of Brandon, Gold Coast contracted with Rebel (which is part of Walker Environmental Services), which trucked the wastewater daily to Jackson and dumped it into the city’s sewer at Rebel’s facility near Interstate 20 in south Jackson.
Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services was paid by Gold Coast to truck the wastewater to Rebel’s facility.
On October 24, an inspector from the MDEQ made an unannounced inspection at Rebel’s facility at 333 Wilmington Street. Andrew Walker, owner of Rebel and Walker Environmental Services, told the inspector that a letter sent to him by the DEQ’s permits division regarding his wastewater from the vacuum system allowed him to dump the waste into Jackson’s sewer system.
Rebel handles waste grease with a system known as a diatomaceous earth rotary vacuum that removes the particles from the grease using a vacuum and a filter. The particulates are then trucked to a landfill while the wastewater is dumped into the city’s sewer system. There was no such device used on the wastewater from Gold Coast, which was dumped directly into Jackson’s sewer system without any other processing.
Walker also said that Gold Coast could no longer dump its wastewater into Brandon’s system, which he said the company had been doing for years, due to the odor.
The letter allowed him to dump up to 25,000 gallons per day of wastewater into Jackson’s sewer system, a figure easily exceeded by the six loads daily (6,300 gallons per load or 37,800 gallons per day) from Gold Coast.
In his report, the inspector said he detected a strong odor (the same he observed at Gold Coast on an inspection visit the year before) and steam rose from the sewer when the manhole was removed. He later observed a thick, greasy material on the surface of the water in the sewer and used a temperature probe to record a reading of 132 degrees and a pH level of 6.51, which indicates an acidic sample.
According to Jackson city ordinances, the monthly average temperature of wastewater can’t exceed 115 degrees or a maxi-
See Gold Coast Hearing, Page 7C
mum reading of 125 degrees and can’t be corrosive or cause obstruction to sewer systems.
On October 25, the MDEQ lab director told the inspector that one of the samples exploded in the lab during a digestion process of testing for metals because the fluid had reached its boiling point.
The DEQ sent cease and desist letters to Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services, Rebel High Velocity Sewer Services and Gold Coast on October 30 that demanded them to stop dumping their wastewater into Jackson’s sewer system.
Rebel owner Andrew Walker was indicted by federal government on August 20 on charges of violating the Clean Water Act by discharging prohibited substances into Jackson’s sewer system. He pleaded not guilty in his appearance before federal Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson on September 16.
The Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality will hold an evidentiary hearing concerning Gold Coast and its wastewater, which was being disposed of in Pelahatchie, on November 19.
