Next Date Set In Wilbros Appeal

A judge has set the next date in the court case surrounding Wilbros’ appeal of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s administration order against the facility.

Oral arguments in the appeal are scheduled to take place on December 3 at 1:30 p.m. in the Office of State Administrative Hearings in Atlanta.

The oral arguments will allow both sides in the appeal case to further present their proposed findings of facts in the case.

Those proposed findings of facts were submitted last month and represent the conclusions each side thinks the evidence shows in the case.

A ruling in the appeal will not come until sometime following the oral arguments.

Administrative Law Judge Ronit Walker with the Office of State Administrative Hearings is currently considering whether to grant Wilbros’ appeal of the EPD administrative order calling on the facility to close.

The hearing phase of that appeal began back in May and, after some continuances, concluded in late August.

Wilbros received this hearing after appealing an administrative order issued by the state’s Environmental Protection Division in January.

That order from the EPD called on Wilbros to stop receiving waste and begin closure proceedings after accusing the facility of violating the state’s Solid Waste Management and Water Quality Acts and associated permits multiple times.

Wilbros, which has been at the center of an odor controversy for years in Stephens County, disputed the EPD’s allegations in the order and called that order to close unlawful.

The EPD’s administrative order cannot be enforced on Wilbros until after the appeal is resolved and regardless of how this appeal ruling goes, either side can appeal the appeal decision to Superior Court.