The onion-like smell of pesticide component Propyl mercaptan coming from the Philip Services Corporation waste treatment plant on Ga. Highway 92 just inside Fulton County does not seem to be dissipating.

Very evident in the air Monday, the effects of the odor has affected more than 100 residents in north Fayette and south Fulton while the smell has sporadically covered an estimated 200 square miles over a large area of Fayette and portions of south Fulton, Coweta and Clayton counties during the past three weeks.

Six persons came to Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville for treatment after smelling the onion odor, while one Fairburn resident was carried by ambulance to an area hospital. Many others were reported to have become ill but sought no hospitalization.

Though permitted by Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to handle such industrial waste, the plant received 20 truckloads of chemicals between June 21-29, some of which is suspected of causing the odorous problem.

Dozens of residents close to the plant in both counties say they are tired of being ill and want answers. They want the smell to stop.

More than 300 arrived Monday at Bethany United Methodist Church on Lee’s Lake Road to exchange information and sign a petition demanding action. Many of those reported ill effects curiously coincide with the smell of onions, the very smell caused by Propyl mercaptan.

The map lines that separate counties have been obliterated with the effects of the chemical.

A random sampling taken at the impromptu petition location revealed north Fayette and south Fulton residents reporting symptoms that include, nausea, vomiting, headaches, breathing difficulty, burning eyes, pneumonia, scratchy throat, skin irritation, dizziness, diarrhea and increased asthma attacks.

Most did not go the a hospital or their own doctors. Most did not make the connection until speaking with others manifesting similar symptoms.

Lee’s Lake Road resident Connie Biemiller is one of many in north Fayette and south Fulton who have been subject to the sporadic but unrelenting odor. It was Biemiller who initiated the petition drive after she and her family experienced intermittent but increased allergy symptoms in past weeks.

Passing out petition information at Bethany United Methodist Monday afternoon, Biemiller said taking such action was necessary to fully alert public officials to the continued seriousness of the situation.

“We’re doing this to raise awareness. We’re smelling a toxic chemical and we demand that our elected officials do something about it. Environmental officials checked the plant and gave it the okay, but we’re still sick,” Biemiller said. “We can’t enjoy being in our yards, even though we have a human right to do that.”

More than 300 hundred of Biemiller’s neighbors in north Fayette and south Fulton signed the petition Monday evening. And the list is growing. The petition read:

“We petition our government leaders to protect the citizens of south Fulton and Fayette counties from toxic odors:We request that toxic odors throughout these counties cease immediately so that no citizen shall suffer physically, mentally or emotionally another day. We demand that these chemicals be purged from the Waste Water Site on Spence Road and that a thorough inspection of our streams and soil content be conducted. We also demand a public meeting held to inform the citizens within 15 days of this petition.”

Living next door to the plant on Hwy. 92, Tanya Coleman has experienced painful headaches and nosebleed, she said Monday at the petition site. The effects of the onion smell were not limited to Coleman and her family. The family’s puppy became very ill after the smell began, she said, with symptoms that included bleeding from the nose and rectum, bloodshot eyes, failure to eat and accompanying weight loss.

Her vet explained the puppy had come in contact with a toxic substance, advising her to monitor the puppy’s activities closely.

Coleman is one of several area residents, including Biemiller, who have said that their dogs and cats have acted strangely in the past few weeks, some of them refusing to go into the yard. Two dogs reportedly died during that time period.

And like Coleman, several residents of both counties say the onion smell was present prior to the first reported shipment of Propyl mercaptan received at PSC on June 21.

Though the heavy onion smell was widely reported June 29 and on subsequent days in Fayette and south Fulton, residents in north Fayette and south Fulton had been smelling it for weeks.

Those smells were linked to Propyl mercaptan, a component ingredient of a pesticide produced by a Bayer chemical facility in Alabama. Emergency management officials from Fayette and Fulton, EPD and federal Environmental Protection Agency arrived at the PSC facility July 3 in response to complaints in both counties.

EPD Emergency Response Team Program Manager Gary Andrews said July 5 that representatives of his agency and EPA conducted tests at the site July 3. Those tests revealed no measurable presence of Propyl mercaptan even though some investigators on the site could smell the chemical, Andrews said.

Fulton County Emergency Management Agency Duty Officer William Smith said that PSC received shipments of wash water containing a small fraction of Propyl mercaptan beginning June 21.

Wash water is produced after the container holding the chemical is empty and the container is washed with water. Containers of wash water were then shipped to PSC for treatment.

From June 21 through June 29, the plant received 20 shipments from a Bayer manufacturing plant in Alabama, Smith said. The first 16 shipments were accepted and treated at the PSC facility. The final four shipments, all arriving June 29, were determined by plant operators to be unacceptable.

The first container arriving June 29 had been transferred to a PSC tank when the determination was made. The Propyl mercaptan was put back on the truck for return shipment to Alabama. When the other three shipments arrived later in the day, the dome lids were opened and samples taken. All three of those tanks were refused and returned to Bayer.

The only known way the chemical could have entered the environment was during those brief occasions were the transfer of one tank was made and the lid on three others was lifted during sampling, Smith and Andrews said.

The 16 shipments that arrived between June 21-28, however, were processed throughout the plant’s wastewater treatment system, Andrews said. That system, he said, it completely self-contained with runoff on plant property being cycled back into the treatment system.

Contacted July 5, PSC General Manager David Chunn said the company has no comment at this time, adding that a statement will be submitted in writing at an unspecified future date.

Andrews said PSC is permitted by EPD to treat solid waste. Though wash water such as that containing Propyl mercaptan came to the facility as a liquid, it and other chemically laden wash water shipments are eventually rendered into a small quantity of solid product during the treatment process.

The final solid waste product is transferred to another facility permitted to handle such waste while the final wastewater generated through the treatment process at PSC is deposited into the Fulton County sewer system.

PSC is also permitted by Fulton County as a pre-treatment facility. In addition, the plant provides a notification, with no permit required, to transport hazardous waste that can be stored on site for up to 10 days, Andrews said.

PSC was cited June 23 with a violation and a $3,500 penalty after EPD staff conducting a routine inspection discovered that a drum of hazardous waste had been stored at the Spence Road plant for 17 days. The drum of hazardous waste had no apparent connection with Propyl mercaptan.

Smith and Andrews said the onion odor should dissipate with time, though it is unknown when that time might be.

And though extremely unpleasant and sickening to many, the chemical make-up of Propyl mercaptan itself is partly responsible for the lingering odor.

Being heavier than air and not easily broken down by sunlight, the chemical tends to hover at ground level, especially in low-lying, shaded areas and creek beds, areas that are usually cooler and damper than open, sunlit areas, Andrews said.

Another factor contributing to its prolonged presence are the hot and humid days the area has seen in the recent past, said Smith.

The onion-like odor has been detected by residents in portions of Fairburn, the Union City area, unincorporated southeast Fulton, north Fayette, the Tyrone area throughout much of the central Fayette area and down to Peachtree City, in Sharpsburg, at I-85 in Newnan and at Hartsfield Airport and Clayton County.

The reason for such a large coverage area in Fayette was initially attributed to the north-south prevailing winds experienced during much of last week.

Yet that does not explain why such an apparently small amount of Propyl mercaptan vapor could linger so obviously over a growing area currently estimated at 200 square miles.

Nor does it explain why the obvious presence of the chemical can be detected at higher elevations, yet areas 15-20 feet downhill from the same area give no hint of the odor.

Just inside Fulton County Monday evening a group of 75 residents from Fayette and Fulton met at a home off Milam Road. The smell of onions strong in the air, some covered their mouths and noses as attorney Scott Zahler asked about their concerns and fielded questions.

“These people have been exposed to something toxic,” Zahler said after the meeting. “Given the timetable of events, our opinion is that it was exposure to mercaptan, and we’re going to look into it.”

The foul smelling Propyl mercaptan is chemically similar to Tertiary Butyl mercaptan (TBM), used as the smelly factor added to otherwise odorless natural gas.

Information on Propyl mercaptan provided in the Materials Safety Data Sheet states that the strong, objectionable odor may cause nausea, dizziness or headache but is not expected to be harmful if inhaled in small quantities.

Propyl mercaptan is a moderately toxic, colorless liquid with a strong, offensive odor that floats on water, according to CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations). It is a chemical intermediate and herbicide and was used as a component of the pesticide MOCAP, produced at Bayer’s Alabama facility.

Notice:

There have been a number of confirmed symptoms and illnesses reported by some residents in Fayette and Fulton counties after exposure in recent weeks to the onion-like smell present in the air. As a public service, The Citizen requests that you email us if you and/or family members have or have had symptoms of illness that you legitimately believe relate to this odor. We are interested in determining the number of people affected, symptoms, timelines, the county or area where you live and whether medical assistance was sought. We ask that you contact us with this information at editor@thecitizen.com

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