Gold Creek Foods, LLC filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of Dawsonville and seven city officials over penalties assessed for alleged high-volume discharges of wastewater and sewage from its poultry-processing plant.
Gold Creek food Officials said the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District names Dawsonville Mayor John Walden, Council members Caleb Phillips, William Illg, Sandy Sawyer, Mark French, City Manager Bob Bolz and Utilities Director Jacob Barr.
The complaint from Gold Creek Foods asks the court to prevent the city from cutting off the plant's water and sewage service based on the assessed fines.
The company is looking to reverse the charges, and is also seeking a temporary and permanent injunction to prevent the city from disconnecting water or sewer service to the poultry processing plant caused by nonpayment of surcharges and penalties.
Gold Creek's complaint called the penalties and fees erroneous under the city ordinance and unconstitutional under the United States and Georgia constitutions. The complaint said the city is using the wrong location to test wastewater discharge and the city ordinance does not provide a mechanism for the company to appeal fines.
Gold Creek said the plant only discharges wastewater at a large volume once or twice a day and discharges sanitary water at a small volume constantly but the city only samples where the sanitary and industrial water are commingled.
The complaint alleges the city’s current testing station is at a place in the pipe after Gold Creek’s sanitary sewer line and industrial wastewater line merge, which is contrary to the testing method in the Environmental Protection Division permit and the city’s ordinance.
“The city of Dawsonville isn’t complying with its own ordinance or the U.S. or Georgia constitutions in assessing these surcharges and penalties,” Stephen E. O’Day with Smith Gambrell & Russell, the Atlanta law firm representing Gold Creek said. “Gold Creek is the only person or entity whose sanitary sewer discharges are sampled by the city, and against whom millions of dollars in fines and penalties are assessed as a result. The city has left us no choice but to file this complaint because they’ve been unwilling to allow us to investigate their results or to appeal their process, nor are they complying with the EPD permit or other laws.”
Gold Creek said it has met with city officials and allows the city to access its property. The complaint alleges the results of the investigations have been stymied in Gold Creek's efforts to obtain the city’s approval to investigate the city’s sewers to determine what the problem is.
“We’re a committed community partner. We’ve invested millions of dollars in this facility to ensure environmental compliance, and we’re dedicated to providing a great environment for our employees and, of course, clean water for this community. The actions of the city of Dawsonville are very disappointing and, unfortunately, we now must seek relief from the court because the city refuses to work with us to find a solution,” Gold Creek CEO Mark Sosebee said.
Gold Creek added.
AccessWDUN has reached out to the City of Dawsonville for comment but has not received a response as of this article’s publication.
