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Taken from http://www.iowahealthinsurance.biz/articles/soychlor.htm

A SoyChlor plant in Jefferson, Iowa is alleged to damage property, kill plant and animal life, and make people and even children sick with hydrochloric acid.
West Central Cooperative SoyChlor Litigation
- Taken from the Des Moines Register
On October 28, 2005, over 250 residents of Jefferson, Iowa, represented by attorneys from LaMarca & Landry, P.C., filed suit against West Central Cooperative in the Iowa District Court for Greene County. The parties to this lawsuit include homeowners, business owners and persons who work at nearby places of employment, such as MicroSoy, Electrolux and American Concrete.

The causes of action include nuisance, negligence, trespass, res ipsa loquitur, and strict liability for carrying on an abnormally dangerous activity. The claims stem from numerous environmental and health changes which have occurred since West Central Cooperative's Jefferson, Iowa Soy Chlor plant began its operations on February 14, 2005. These problems stem essentially from the Soy Chlor's plant emission of hydrogen chloride, hydrochloric acid and particulate matter containing one or both of these chemicals. Soy Chlor is a patented dairy cattle feed supplement which combines hydrochloric acid with soy product.
The lawsuit also alleges violation of West Central Cooperative's IDNR operating permit for this plant, as well as violations of the hazardous chemical risk law and other environmental laws and applicable standards of care.

Lawsuit: Feed plant causes illnesses
- Taken from the Des Moines Register
ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
November 1, 2005 

A livestock feed ingredient plant in Jefferson is making people who live and work nearby sick, a lawsuit against West Central Cooperative alleges.

More than 100 residents of Jefferson have sued the cooperative, one of Iowa's largest farmer-owned co-ops, contending that the plant has caused health problems and property damage in the city of about 4,700 people.

West Central opened the business - SoyChlor - in February. Since then, emissions from the plant have corroded metal buildings and other property within a mile of the plant, the lawsuit alleges. Emissions also have killed grass and other vegetation, eliminated wildlife, ruined windows and discolored surrounding structures and roadway rock, plaintiffs contend.

The plaintiffs claim that the plant has exceeded legal limits for emissions of both hydrogen chloride and "particulate matter," or dust. When combined with moisture, the chemical turns into hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance known to be toxic to humans and animals.

"It's plain as day, right from my front window," said Jeb Ball , owner of a used car business west of the SoyChlor plant on Jefferson's north side. "I have to look at it every day."

Nile Ramsbottom , vice president for soy and nutrition operations at Ralston-based West Central, said he had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on it. But he said the company had worked with state regulators "to be in compliance with testing."

"We think we're in compliance now," he said, but he added that the company plans to increase the height of SoyChlor's emissions tower to 94 feet to more widely disperse emissions and to dilute their presence on the ground. West Central also plans to install an additional scrubbing system, Ramsbottom said, adding that those combined steps would be more than enough to ensure that plant emissions meet legal limits .

The company has asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which oversees manufacturing plant emissions, to allow the changes.

Dave Phelps , who supervises the DNR section that oversees such permits, said the department was prepared to grant the company's request, but he also expects there to be a public comment period and public hearing about the matter this month . He also said recent testing showed the plant's dust emission rate exceeded the limit allowed by state law.

George LaMarca, a Des Moines lawyer representing plaintiffs in the case, said a public hearing and the opportunity for public input are good steps, but ones that should have been taken before the plant was opened. "We want the plant closed," he said.

SoyChlor makes a nutritional supplement that is fed to pregnant dairy cows to prevent milk fever, Ramsbottom said. The company has manufactured its patented product for about seven years, he said, marketing it throughout North America. It used to be made in Adair, but manufacturing was moved to Jefferson this year after West Central opened its plant.

In a lawsuit filed against West Central on Friday in Greene County District Court, residents and business owners contend the company violated state law by failing to comply with clean air standards and by failing to fully disclose to state regulators and to the community the contents of emissions from the plant.

The plaintiffs are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, as well as a permanent injunction forcing the closure of the plant.

Ball, the owner of the used car business, said Monday that his son, Colton Conroy , 15, has been sickened by SoyChlor emissions. A month ago, the high school sophomore collapsed at a football game, and a treating physician blamed SoyChlor emissions for health problems that first emerged after the plant opened.

Since his collapse, the teenager has lived with his maternal grandparents, south of town, and his symptoms have subsided, said Ball and his wife, Diane Conroy.

"He could run track and play football and everything a year ago, and had no problems whatsoever," Ball said.

Residents Fear Soy Chlor Plant is Eating Away Town
Citizens blame health problems, property damage on SoyChlor emissions.
- Taken from the Des Moines Register
ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
November 6, 2005

Jefferson, Ia. — A prescription for a healthy rural economy has made people in this western Iowa town sick, workers and residents say.

The afflicted blame their ailments on emissions from SoyChlor, a livestock feed supplement plant that opened nine months ago on the north edge of Jefferson, a city of 4,600 people about an hour's drive northwest of Des Moines. They have reported symptoms ranging from persistent coughing and shortness of breath to skin irritations and burning sensations in nasal passages.

Government records show that the plant has violated air-quality standards several times since opening in February. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has not fined SoyChlor for the violations, and it plans to allow SoyChlor to make changes that regulators and the company believe will keep emissions within limits. But residents fear that the changes, including increased production at the plant, will only broaden the problem.

The dispute has pitted at least 150 townspeople against one of Iowa's largest farmer-owned cooperatives and has sparked a lawsuit to force the company to close the plant. The $5 million project received financial assistance and tax incentives from local and state government.

The Jefferson situation is an example of how agribusinesses — from large-scale hog confinements to packing plants — have clashed with their neighbors and rural Iowa communities. The situation also reflects the tradeoffs involved in the cutthroat competition among small towns to attract new business.

SoyChlor uses hazardous materials, including hydrogen chloride, to make a patented product added to feed for dairy cows. Hydrogen chloride is a noxious gas that can be toxic to humans and animals.

When mixed with moisture, it becomes hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive substance capable of eating through motor vehicle finish, pitting glass, and killing wildlife and vegetation — all of which have occurred, residents say, in the "fallout zone," an area extending a mile or more in every direction from the plant. The gas, the acid and particulate matter tainted by the gas or acid are emitted through a stack that sits atop a concrete tower at the north end of the plant.

Officials with West Central Cooperative in Ralston, owner of SoyChlor, have declined to comment on residents' claims, citing the lawsuit against the company. Nile Ramsbottom, a West Central executive who oversees the plant, did say that the plant complies with Iowa's air quality laws.

But last month, the DNR said SoyChlor had emitted more particulate matter than allowed.

Plant changes proposed

Despite complaints and violations, the SoyChlor plant continues to operate. The DNR has levied no fines or penalties for the violations, said Dave Phelps, supervisor of construction permitting for the DNR in Des Moines. The company is working with the agency to correct the problems, he said.

At the same time, the co-op has applied to extend the emissions stack to 94 feet, as well as to raise its emissions limit. The DNR is prepared to grant the requests, pending the outcome of a public hearing, Phelps said.

Company officials have said they also plan to add a scrubber, Phelps said, which may negate the need for raising the stack or emissions rate as much as previously planned.

SoyChlor also plans to increase production, Ramsbottom said.

That worries residents, who fear that a taller stack will send potentially harmful emissions over a broader area.

Phelps, trained as a chemist, said that's true, but he also said it would dilute their impact on the environment and could help the company stay within permitted emission limits.

Phelps also said, however, that the proposed changes were no guarantee that there would be no more problems.

"We're trying to work with everybody to get it squared away, and we think it will," he said. "It's a balancing act."

Residents file suit

On Oct. 28, about 150 Jefferson residents, workers and business owners filed a lawsuit against West Central in Greene County District Court. Plaintiffs include workers at several other businesses in the area, including MicroSoy, American Concrete, Electrolux and Sparky's One Stop, a convenience store.

The plaintiffs contend the co-op failed to give adequate notice to the public about the potential hazards of materials used at the SoyChlor plant before it opened on Feb. 14.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that they are not anti-agricultural activists reacting to a typical nuisance, such as livestock odor or grain dust.

"In Iowa, when you live in a community this size, you accept it because it's agriculture," said Jeff Ostendorf, a Jefferson livestock producer who works at MicroSoy Corp., a soy-based food ingredient manufacturer located across the street from SoyChlor. "This is different."

West Central had planned a public meeting for Monday (Nov. 7) at a Jefferson church to address concerns about the SoyChlor plant. But last week, the co-op canceled the meeting, citing the pending lawsuit against it.

Tuesday (Nov. 8) is the City Council election. West Central's Ramsbottom is running, and he hopes to unseat Bill Figenshaw, an incumbent.

Several Figenshaw signs, but few for Ramsbottom, dot residential areas at the north end of town, in the shadow of SoyChlor and West Central's massive grain-handling complex.

Health problems increase

Bonnie Burkhardt lives south of SoyChlor, across the street. One day last week, she paged through notebooks and three-ring binders in which she has kept meticulous track of communication about the dispute with public officials, company officials and others in the community.

One notebook detailed the potentially harmful effects of the toxic substances used by SoyChlor, along with reports from medical doctors treating Burkhardt and others who say they have suffered health setbacks this year.

Formerly vibrant children now sleep way too much and run low on energy quickly, families say. Colton Conroy, a 15-year-old pushing past 6 feet tall, got winded easily and began to lose weight, his mother said. Adults with respiratory ailments, including Norma Gross and Ron Lawton, said they had been improving with the help of medical treatments, but now say they have gotten worse.

Last year, Gross was doing well, despite her chronic lung disease. But after SoyChlor opened, she lost ground quickly, struggling to breathe. Her physicians at University Hospitals in Iowa City, where she has been participating in a research project, urged her to move away, she said. But she is a lifelong resident, and she and her husband raised 10 children here. Gross doesn't want to live anywhere else.

Also alarming to Gross and Burkhardt is the loss of wildlife. Gone are the pigeons that used to sit atop tall grain storage structures north of the SoyChlor plant, they said. Gone are the bluejays, cardinals, goldfinches and other birds that used to perch on the numerous feeders in Gross' backyard. She has not seen a bird for weeks.

"It was like all of a sudden there weren't any birds anymore, not even sparrows," said Gross, who lives in a tidy trailer park within a mile of the plant.

In addition, spots have surfaced on the finish of vehicles and on the siding of homes and other buildings, even on mailboxes.

Jefferson residents said West Central's insurer had hired a Florida firm to clean vehicles affected by the emissions. They also said the insurer had offered checks of up to several hundred dollars to residents claiming property damage, although recipients were required to sign a form releasing the co-op and its affiliates from further claims.

West Central officials did not return phone calls late last week.

Similar symptoms seen

Burkhardt said she first noticed that something was wrong when her skin would burn while she worked in the flower garden. Eventually, it drove her indoors, where she would shower to make the burning stop. That was last spring, after she spent several months in Florida with her husband, Chuck.

At the same time, Arletta Tasler and her husband returned from a winter in Texas. They both developed coughs that have lasted for months, they said. At times, Tasler said, she has coughed so hard that she has vomited.

Like Burkhardt, the Taslers had no clue about the cause.

Burkhardt and her friend Diane Conroy talked to neighbors and people working at nearby businesses. Within a mile of Burkhardt's home, they found dozens of people reporting similar symptoms. They had noticed a strange odor first, like the scent from a bag of empty beer cans left in the hot sun for a day, Conroy said.

Then came health problems. Then the spots on vehicles and on buildings. Then filminess on windows and windshields that scrubbing could not remove. And some noticed that their eyeglasses had become pitted.

The women searched the Internet for information about SoyChlor and the chemicals it used.

The more they learned, the more they became convinced that the culprit was SoyChlor.

"If you get this on your siding, if it's pitted, think what it's doing to your lungs," said Tasler, who lives with her husband of 49 years, Shorty, on a farmstead directly east of the plant where they raised eight children.

Burkhardt, Conroy and others contacted the head of city sanitation, the public health nurse and the local newspaper editor. They began contacting the government — environmental and safety regulators, Iowa's U.S. senators, even the White House.

Conroy and her husband, Jeb Ball, contacted their lawyer in Des Moines. He referred them to George LaMarca, another Des Moines lawyer. LaMarca knew just how deadly hydrogen chloride could be. The gas had incapacitated some of the victims in Des Moines' deadliest fire ever, which swept the Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall on Nov. 5, 1978. LaMarca represented victims' survivors in litigation that lasted for years and, ultimately, resulted in an undisclosed settlement for the plaintiffs.

He has just five words for the co-op: "We want the plant closed."
Help Shut Down The SoyChlor Plant In Jefferson
Use the contact information below to tell the city of Jefferson to stop poisoning it's citizens!
City of Jefferson
City Hall: 515-386-3111

City Administrator: Elizabeth Hailey  

City Clerk: Diane Kennedy

Mayor: Todd Madson - (515) 386-3730 - Jefferson, IA 50129

City Council: Randy Bunkers - (515) 386-8486 - 305 E Wilcox Way, Jefferson, IA 50129
William J Figenshaw - (515) 386-2658 - 1203 Riverside Dr, Jefferson, IA 50129
Craig Hertel - (515) 386-3970 - 409 N Grimmell Rd, Jefferson, IA 50129
Larry Teeples - (515) 386-2460 - 403 E Vest St, Jefferson, IA 50129
Nancy Teusch - (515) 386-4128 - 207 W State St, Jefferson, IA 50129

Greene County Development Corp.
220 North Chestnut Street
Jefferson, IA 50129
Phone: 515-386-8255 | Fax: 515-386-2156
information@greenecountyiowadevelopment.org

West Central Cooperative (owner of the soychlor plant)

406 First Street
Ralstan, IA 51459
Ph: (712) 667-3200
Fax: (712) 667-3215
Email: sarahd@westcentral.net
http://www.west-central.com/

Jefferson

Office Hours
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Address  
1500 N Mulberry
Jefferson, IA 50129

Phone Number
(515) 386-4144
Fax
(515) 386-8587
E-mail Address
jefferson@westcentral.net
Regional Manager
Chris Nation

Jefferson, Iowa SoyChlor Hydrochloric Acid Article

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