Attorneys for Fayette and south Fulton residents alleging harm from chemical releases at the Philip Services Corp. (PSC) waste treatment plant near Fairburn have amended the proposed class action lawsuit to include a broadened definition of the harm done to residents and their property.

The amended suit claims eight counts, including continuing trespass, continuing nuisance, negligence, negligence per se, injunctive relief, declaratory judgment, punitive damages and attorney’s fees, costs and expenses.

The amendment was filed Oct. 3 in the Atlanta Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Initially sought for problems arising from exposure to the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan, the amended suit adds the organophosphate pesticide MOCAP (Ethoprop) to the action.

“This action is brought as a class action. The class represented by the named plaintiffs consists of all individuals who have been injured or damaged by defendants’ negligent acts and omissions in connection with generation, transportation, handling, processing, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes including, but not limited to, the substances known as propyl mercaptan and Ethoprop,” the suit said.

The lawsuit names defendants Philip Services Corp., also known as PSC Recovery Systems and Georgia Recovery Systems, and AMVAC Chemical Corp.

The PSC plant in Fairburn received 38 shipments and rejected four other shipments of MOCAP “water wash” containing the pesticide and propyl mercaptan from the AMVAC facility in Axis, Alabama. The suit also provides for as many as 10 “John Doe” defendants yet to be named.

Atlanta attorneys Goetz, Allen & Zahler maintain that the class consists of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of residents of Fayette, Fulton and Clayton counties and possibly other areas.

The amended suit also broadens the reported time frame for which the chemicals were introduced into the communities surrounding the PSC plant. Residents’ attorneys maintain that shipments of MOCAP water wash were brought into the community in May and June and were released into the air, water and soil surrounding the plant and in outlying areas.

Those releases, the suit charges, resulted from mishandling and mistreatment of the shipments. It was during the same time frame that area residents began manifesting symptoms of the various symptoms of acute overexposure and chronic overexposure to MOCAP, the suit said.

“As a result of defendants’ negligent acts and omission, plaintiffs and those similarly situated have suffered physical and mental pain and suffering, incurred medical expenses, have suffered damages to their property including, without limitation, the loss of the use and enjoyment of their property and the diminution of their property values,” the suit said.

To date, more than 750 residents of Fayette and south Fulton counties have completed forms indicating symptoms of possible exposure to MOCAP and propyl mercaptan.

Residents have reported symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, uncontrollable headaches, skin rashes, eye irritation, kidney problems, including kidney failure and first-time diagnoses of pleurisy, asthma and other breathing problems.

The majority of reports centered in an area of approximately 40 square miles in Fayette and Fulton. Area reports of the onion-like chemical smell began surfacing during the Memorial Day weekend. PSC claims the first shipments of MOCAP water wash arrived June 20.