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10/17/2006Judge OKs adding company to lawsuitTRAVERSE CITY — Neighbors of Williamsburg Receiving & Storage want to make a national food company liable for environmental problems and potential damages stemming from operations at the cherry processing plant. A judge Monday allowed a neighborhood group that joined a state lawsuit against WRS to expand a negligence count in the suit to include Sensient Flavors, a division of the food and pharmaceutical giant Sensient Technologies Corp. of Milwaukee. Michael Grant, an attorney for the Whitewater Residents Association, said his clients sought to add the food flavoring company to the negligence portion of the lawsuit after reviewing documents between the company and WRS that indicate Sensient is at least partially responsible for operations at the WRS plant along Munro Road in northern Whitewater Township. Grant said the company supplies the chemicals used for processing cherries at the plant. "We now know more information about the relationship between Sensient and WRS," Grant said. "(Sensient) knew this is a process that creates a lot of wastewater that you have to deal with." The neighborhood group joined a lawsuit filed in February by the state Department of Environmental Quality against WRS over ongoing environmental problems at the plant, including a major spill from an unauthorized lagoon that stored cherry wastewater. Grant's amended complaint also adds another half-dozen neighbors to the lawsuit. An attorney for Sensient didn't object to the revised filing, but said the company won't acknowledge any wrongdoing at WRS. "We certainly oppose the allegations and will defend (against them)," Sensient attorney Peter Worden said. An earlier order signed by Circuit Judge Thomas Power gave WRS until Oct. 15 to conduct various cleanup work at the plant and eliminate the odors that prompted dozens of complaints to DEQ in recent months. Power on Monday asked if the work had been completed. "I can represent we have completed all issues in the order," WRS attorney Gina Bozzer said. But Grant disagreed. "We don't believe so, your honor," he said. See related stories:
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