ATI faces more legal trouble at Malvern sawmill

A group of landowners who were negatively affected by an unlawful discharge of pollutants that originated at the Anthony Timberlands sawmill in Malvern and made its way down Chatman Creek throughout the latter half of 2022 filed a civil suit in HSC Circuit Court against the company in June 2023.

Some of those landowners have come together to file additional paperwork as the conglomerate “Clean the Water, LLC” to pursue damages related to a massive pile of wood waste intruding onto property adjacent to the sawmill.

Wood waste accumulates as a result of normal sawmill operations, but the complaint states that the wood waste pile in question began accumulating in 2017 and now intrudes onto property not belonging to the sawmill.

Inspectors with the ADEQ estimated the pile was in excess of 650,000 cubic yards when they inspected the site in October 2022. The mound seems to have gotten smaller in the intervening months upon casual observation, but the wood pile can still be seen stretching along the rear of the sawmill property that butts up to a concrete ditch running along Kelly Street, where the plaintiff property belonging to the conglomerate is located.

The complaint, filed on Dec. 12 of last year, states in part that “ATI’S wood waste pile remains unlawfully in or upon property owned by the Plaintiff” which is not only against the law but also of concern because the wood waste pile was allegedly hosed down with contaminated water during the suspected discharge of pollutants in 2022.

The complaint charges one count of statutory trespass related to the status of the wood waste pile and one count of common law trespass related to the actions of ATI employees, who allowed the pile to grow into an ill-managed amount exceeding the sawmill property.

The plaintiffs in the case are seeking punitive and compensatory damages of an amount to be determined by the Court, along an injunction ordering the sawmill to “abate its trespass”.

“Punitive damages should also be applied against ATI due to ATI’S intentional ongoing trespass which they have not attempted to remediate,” as stated in the filing.

James Baxter of The Baxter Law Firm in Benton is the plaintiffs’ legal counsel in both cases.

“My clients' ultimate goal through this litigation and the other case against Anthony Timberlands is to ensure that their property rights are respected and that the waterways are restored to what they once were so that they can use and enjoy their land,” Baxter stated in an email correspondence.