Lawsuit filed against operators of former tire plant in Miami

A federal lawsuit has been filed against a former Miamibased tire and rubber manufacturing company for allegedly failing to notify state and local authorities about leaks of hazardous waste.

The 32-page complaint filed June 13 in the Northern District of Oklahoma is against Michelin North America Inc. and B.F. Goodrich Company.

Telephone calls to Benjamin Louis Barnes and Bradley H. Mallett, attorneys for the plaintiffs, were not returned.

The 112 plaintiffs, including six children, who live or lived in the Miami Heights housing subdivision claim the companies violated federal and state reporting requirements.

The heart of the lawsuit is the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986.

“Defendants’ violations of the reporting requirements of EPCRA have been numerous and repeated,” according to the lawsuit.

“Goodrich had knowledge that its underground chemical feedline system was leaking hazardous waste yet failed to take any actions to correct or properly report the continuous leaking of hazardous wastes into the soil and groundwater adjacent to and immediately north of the Miami Heights housing subdivision,” the lawsuit states.

Some of the chemicals used at the plant were benzene and naphtha, the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, the chemicals were stored in underground storage tanks, rooftop tanks, roof silos, 55-gallon drums at the facility and over 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil were stored on-site in multiple aboveground storage tanks.

Benzene was also being dumped throughout the plant site, the lawsuit alleges.

The businesses are accused of failure to submit emergency followup notices, hazardous chemical inventories, safety data sheets and toxic chemical release forms to the Local Emergency Planning Commission or Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

The plaintiffs are seeking $25,000 up to $75,000 per day for the days a safety plan was not in place, the lawsuit states.

The Department of Environmental Quality said there are two cases open in connection with the plant —a groundwater case and 2016 injunction lawsuit.

“The groundwater levels tend to fluctuate, but we are seeing a decreasing trend,” DEQ spokeswoman Skylar McElhaney said.

The 40-year-old plant employed 1,900 workers and had a workforce from the four-state area of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas before it shut down on Aug. 23, 1985.