Shut the Philip Services Corp. waste treatment plant down for good, says the Fayette County Commission.

Elected officials were joined by North Fayette Community Association, calling for a definitive resolution to the chemical release into communities that has sickened nearly 600 residents of north Fayette and south Fulton counties.

Resolutions by both the commission and the community organization called for the permanent closure of the waste treatment plant at 8025 Spence Road, located just inside Fulton County and south of Fairburn.

Both groups cited adverse health effects to hundreds of area residents and the ongoing efforts of state agencies to determine the true extent of the release of vapors into the environment by the PSC plant.

Those vapors resulted from a “water wash” solution containing the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and the organophosphate pesticide MOCAP.

In their Aug. 24 resolution, Fayette commissioners expressed their “grave concern for the health, safety and welfare of our citizens and our environment. Despite corrective actions currently underway at the Philip Services Corp. (required by officials of the state of Georgia and Fulton County) in response to this incident, we hereby call for the permanent closure of said facility by the appropriate state of Georgia and Fulton County officials. Anything less than permanent closure would continue to constitute a permanent threat to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of both counties,” the statement said.

“We stand ready to offer the continued resources of the Fayette County Department of Emergency Management to assist in whatever capacity needed to bring about the permanent closure of PSC. This board is grateful for the actions of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, the Department of Natural Resources, the State Department of Public Health, our Fayette County personnel and to local citizens who have worked tirelessly to bring this issue to resolution,” the statement said.

“We believe, however, that true resolution can only be achieved by the swift and permanent closure of the Philip Services corporation facility,” the county commission statement said.

Those sentiments were preceded Aug. 19 at a meeting of North Fayette Community Association with the passage of a resolution calling for a definitive resolution to the problems at the plant.

Cited in the resolution was the release of toxic chemicals into the environment, illness experienced by area residents and the cumulative adverse health affects.

In the resolution, the association called for “all government officials, elected officers and health prevention entities representing or serving the North Fayette Community to pursue all possible action within their powers to fully investigate and recent release of toxic chemicals in order to determine the severity of exposure including the number of people affected as well as their treatment options, and to ensure a safe environment even if such action requires ordering the shutdown of this plant or any other facility or any other facility that poses a health and safety threat to our environment, and to eliminate any possibility of future hazardous or toxic chemical exposures caused by any business or entity that store, processes or transports toxic materials in and around our community, and that every resident of North Fayette County is urged to recognize their responsibility to become informed, seek necessary medical help and encourage public and private enterprise to seek solutions.”

To date, nearly 600 residents of north Fayette and south Fulton counties have reported health effects from exposure to the chemicals.

The impetus to identify those affected was originally put into motion by a determined group of Fayette and Fulton residents that subsequently formed the South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force.

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