Georgia Office of Public Health has stepped in as a persistent and growing group of sick and frustrated residents from north Fayette and south Fulton counties formed the South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force.

Organizers said the move is designed to keep the pressure on local, state and federal officials and to find answers to lingering questions relating to the widespread illnesses suffered after exposure to the onion-like smell of the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and pesticide MOCAP.

The chemicals were components of a water wash mixture received at the Philip Services Corp. waste treatment plant on Ga. Highway 92 just south of Fairburn and just north of the Fayette County border.

Residents decided Aug. 2 to take their efforts to a higher level by officially forming the group, electing officers and setting out to obtain non-profit status. Discussions at last week’s meeting included the formation of task force panels or committees to address scientific, public health, legislative and other issues surrounding the chemical exposure residents say they have experienced.

The overall goals of the task force are two-fold, said task force Chair Connie Biemiller. The goals are to take care of the affected citizens and to shut down the plant, she said, explaining the importance of determining the reasons and results of the chemicals that altered the health of hundreds in south Fulton and north Fayette during the past nine weeks.

“This problem is larger than we first expected,” Biemiller said. “For one thing, the government had not been functioning in the capacity they need to be functioning in, so the citizens had to take in it into their own hands. The citizens are committed and cohesive and will not allow this to be swept away.”

Local government attention to the plight of citizens since the first public meeting July 19 began with Fayette, then Fulton, taking information from residents regarding their symptoms and illnesses believed to be related to propyl mercaptan and MOCAP. Involvement on a state level was triggered last week when Georgia Dept. of Public Health announced measures to be introduced.

District 4 Public Information Officer Hayla Hall said Aug. 4 that, at the request of Fayette County Board of Health, District Health Director Dr. Michael Brackett has requested additional state resources to review available data on the residents’ exposure and reported adverse health effects. This work will be done in coordination with work by other local, state and federal agencies, Hall said.

“Under the direction of Division of Public Health Director Dr. Stuart Brown, a team of environmental and public health specialists have convened in order to assist the counties affected in a further investigation of this matter,” said Hall. “This team has begun collecting information such as community exposure reports (from Fayette and Fulton counties), from other involved entities and on Aug. 2 participated in an information session and site visit to the affected areas. This team will review the information collected regarding exposure and reported adverse health affects, as well as researching existing scientific data and literature on mercaptan and related chemical exposure. Once this information and data is fully collected and analyzed, the team will first provide the local entities with a summarized report of the community survey.”

Hall said the team will make recommendations for additional steps as appropriate based on the report. Those steps may include additional public health assessment or further investigation.

To date, Fayette County has received exposure forms documenting reported illnesses and symptoms of exposure to Propyl mercaptan or MOCAP to 180 Fayette residents and 83 Fulton residents.

Responding to the belief of some residents that Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) is backing away from a two-county health crisis, EPD Assistant Director Jim Ussery said Aug. 4 that is not the case. Though the division does not have medical doctors on staff to address concerns over physical illnesses, EPD is trying to address the areas within its realm of responsibility, he said.

“We plan to deal with the permit,” Ussery added, in reference to questions about the two-year period that has elapsed since PSC has provided the state with required documentation on the chemicals that have entered and been processed at the plant.

One of the requirement’s of PSC’s Solid Waste Handling permit 060-082P(DW) states that the plant will produce “a list of generators, processes, and quantities of the industrial sludges handled [which] shall be submitted to EPD, in writing, within six months after the startup of operation and updated annually thereafter.”

The company’s failure to provide such essential data to the regulatory agency thrusts PSC into the realm of blatant non-compliance, task force members say. Residents have maintained that while missing documentation might give PSC the opportunity to deny any wrongdoing, its non-compliance bolsters concerns that other, more dangerous chemicals could have been accepted and processed at the Fairburn site long before the Memorial Day holiday where many residents first smelled the strong odor of onions. Without records provided in a timely fashion, the veracity of those reports is called into question, some residents said.

Another function of the new task force involves securing funds to further the goals of finding the truth about what has been treated during previous years and finding a way to have the plant closed permanently.

To that end, the task force is in process of filing for non-profit status so that contributions can be tax-deductible. Also in process, said Biemiller, are letters to Fayette and Fulton County commissions requesting $10,000 from each body to help defray some of the initial costs such as having privately-hired professionals conduct some of the testing and to verify the chain-of-custody of those samples.

The onset of illnesses reported by residents of north Fayette and south Fulton extend on both sides of the timeframes reported by PSC and EPD.

PSC Vice President for Environmental Affairs Morris Azose told 400 residents at a July 19 public meeting that the first of 38 loads of wash water containing a small percentage of the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and pesticide MOCAP was received June 20 while four unacceptable loads were turned away June 28.

The company has promised in advertisements taken in several local newspapers that it has ceased all treatment of mercaptan and intends never to receive another shipment of the odorant.

All traces of mercaptan that might have remained inside the plant, other than the vapors in the air, were treated and eliminated by July 25, Azose said.

Those timelines conflict with those of many residents who report smelling the now-familiar onion odor on Memorial Day or during the first week of June. Though variable in intensity and duration, the odor continued through the Aug. 5 weekend.

Some of the residents sickened by the odor in the 40 square-mile affected areas of north Fayette and south Fulton said they sought medical and emergency medical treatment prior to the June 20 timeline offered by PSC and EPD. The onion-like smell of propyl mercaptan was reported over a 200-square mile area that includes portions of Fayette, Fulton, Coweta and Clayton counties.

South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force members say the newly consolidated group will not back off from demanding accountability from PSC, all government regulatory agencies and elected officials.

As the process of seeking accountability moves forward, U.S. Rep. David Scott’s office has requested a meeting of task force members at his office. The meeting will include a conference call with federal officials.

The task force has requested that agencies such as Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management, Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security participate in the conference call.