“We have no records,” admits the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

That’s no written records — although required by law — for the past 16 years of waste treatment activities at a plant on the Fulton-Fayette border implicated in a release of a pesticide component this summer. That release is being blamed for hundreds of illnesses in a 40-square-mile “hot zone” around the plant.

EPD officials revealed the lack of documentation after The Citizen last week sought required documentation for the operation of the plant on Ga. Highway 92 just south of Fairburn that is now owned by the Phillips Services Corp.

Records of the waste components brought in to the waste treatment plant near Fairburn do not exist,officials said. They never have since Fulton County sold the sewerage plant to private interests in 1990.

Most recently at issue are annual reports accounting for the waste products brought in and processed by the current owner, PSC, which purchased the facility in 1997.

Underlying the issue are the documented illnesses of more than 750 area residents who say they have been sickened by the noxious smells associated with the water wash from the pesticide MOCAP emanating from the plant during an unknown period around Memorial Day.

But for 16 years, including well before PSC’s purchase of the facility in 1997, there is not a single required annual report that has ever been turned in to Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), according to EPD Solid Waste Manager Jeff Cown.

Responding Friday to questions about the reports by PSC since its purchase of the plant and the existence of reports by previous companies dating back to 1990 when the permit was first issued to a corporate entity, Cown said, “There are no reports; they never turned them in.”

Those annual reports are not optional. They are a part of the requirement of the EPD-issued solid waste handling permit under which companies operate in Georgia.

Though regular filed reports are a requirement of the solid waste handling permit, Cown said he did not know why companies operating the plant since 1990 were not contacted by EPD to provide those reports.

Nor did Cown know why companies would be allowed to continue to operate year after year while being in violation of the permit.

Taking up the issue, Land Protection Branch Chief Jennifer Kaduck said Georgia has a tremendous amount of waste generated and EPD has hundreds of solid waste permits.

“As to why this (the lack of annual reports) was not picked up by inspectors, I can’t answer why,” Kaduck said Tuesday. “I really don’t know. But we know it now. Our main concern is getting facilities in compliance.”

Commenting for PSC, Vice President for Environmental Affairs Morris Azose said Monday the company’s failure to provide annual reports for a number of years was an oversight.

Azose said EPD’s recent request for the 2004 and 2005 reports and those for the first half of 2006 should have been completed. As for annual reports dating back to 1997, Azose said, “If they ask for further information we will respond to that request.”

A check of Fulton County records, under the auspices of the county’s pre-treatment permit held by PSC, showed the presence of most of the required monthly records but with virtually no explanation provided.

The reports reflect a daily compilation of the companies that ship waste to the plant, the quantity of waste shipped, the type of waste, the treatment method and the pollutants involved.

The reports located at Fulton County Public Works Department do match the claims by PSC that those records had been supplied monthly to Fulton County. Yet for the information provided, that data provides virtually no explanation about the products that entered the plant for processing and never lists the component chemicals involved.

Perhaps as curious as missing or vaguely worded documents, according to Fulton County records, is the number of shipments of MOCAP water wash accepted at the plant for processing in June that does not match Fulton’s records.

Both EPD and Azose stated that the company had accepted 38 shipments of MOCAP water wash from the AMVAC plant in Axis, Ala., between June 20-28. Yet Fulton County records show only three shipments, one on June 20 and two on June 21.

Unlike a PSC June 2006 Waste Profile Sheet that listed water wash from AMVAC containing water, propyl mercaptan at 525 parts per million (ppm), MOCAP at 157 ppm, chloride salts and ethanol, the report sent by PSC to Fulton County listed the type of waste as “wash water” with no further explanation.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to secure an explanation by Fulton County Public Works Director Angela Parker as to why Fulton County requires only vague descriptions of accepted waste and how, given those descriptions, the county could have any assurance of what was actually being received.

Essentially, neither EPD nor Fulton County have any knowledge of exactly what waste components were brought in to the plant since it became a private waste business in 1990, nor any documentation of the amounts.

Subsequently, neither governmental agency knows what chemical vapors might have escaped the plant or in what quantity.

This revelation does not bode well with the hundreds of “hot zone” residents sickened by what they say was the onion-like smell of pesticide MOCAP and the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan accepted at the plant earlier in the summer. Nor does the information sit well with professionals who have taken up the cause of affected residents pressing for answers.

According to retired biologist Dennis Chase of Fayette County, “During my 18 years of service in Georgia with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I often encountered an incredible degree of incompetence by EPD. But the fact that EPD cannot, or will not, provide files related to the South Fulton facility operated by PSC is astonishing.

“Sixteen years of missing files reflect an incredible lack of regulatory enforcement and is an absolute insult to all of us who depend on EPD to protect our environment and our health,” said Chase, who has volunteered to serve on the South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force.

“I am aware that the Georgia legislature directs EPD to be business and developer friendly. They obviously care more for the business world than the health and well-being of Georgia citizens,” Chase said.

The findings of missing records at EPD and vaguely worded records at Fulton County came as little surprise to Community Task Force Chairman Connie Biemiller of north Fayette County. Like so many affected residents, she questioned the capability of EPD to meet its obligations.

“I am astounded at the continued revelations that there is no oversight of this facility, especially when there was to be an ever tightening of restrictions in the post 2001 9/11 awakening,” Biemiller said.

“It is clear that a terrorist attack can be waged upon our citizens at anytime. These terror organizations can step into Georgia and readily attack our communities via air and stream because it is already happening and is being played out in Fayette and South Fulton counties with over 750 citizens ill from chemical exposure,” Biemiller said.

“It is clear that the Environmental ‘Protection’ Division is incapable of protecting anyone in the state of Georgia. They are understaffed, underfunded and woefully mismanaged. The State of Georgia is one of the least restrictive States when it comes to toxic waste and for that very reason Alabama and other states readily send their toxins to Georgia because a dollar means more to our leaders then our health, welfare and safety,” Biemiller said.

Questions posed in recent months by residents into the hundreds reflect a conclusion that most of the area’s state and federally elected officials have shown little concern, if any, for their constituents, their families or their well-being. For a nearly endless number of sick and irate residents, the answers to their health concerns lies far beyond PSC and EPD.

“Most recently I viewed a letter written by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland in May 2006 asking the Environment Protection Agency that governs between states to even further lessen their restrictions with regard to pesticide containment in the state of Georgia. How much lower can we go?” Biemiller said. “And, all this time I have been wondering why I was told by Rep. Westmoreland’s office that they did not see the need to get involved in our plight with regard to the poisoning of the citizens he represents, ‘they felt Fulton County had it well in hand.’ I, for one, have been jolted out of a dream state and quickly placed into reality with regard to the actions of our elected officials and that of our governing agencies. As chairman of the South Fulton and Fayette Community Task Force, I can say to our citizens that we will not stop until we are safe again and we ask that citizens everywhere in this great state join us in this fight to rid our residential community of toxins that continue to harm us and can potentially kill us.”