Lockhart Chemical Co. is located at 4302 James P. Blvd. in Flint. (Isaac Ritchey | MLive.com)Isaac Ritchey | MLive.com
FLINT, MI -- Lockhart Chemical, the company responsible for spilling thousands of gallons of an oil-based substance into the Flint River in June, has declared bankruptcy.
Lockhart made the Chapter 7 filing on Friday, Oct. 7, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pennsylvania, where its principal office is located. It has manufactured and marketed chemical additives from its plant on James P. Cole Boulevard in Flint for four decades.
In its Chapter 7 petition, the company said it has $1 million to $10 million in assets and estimated liabilities of $10 million to $50 million.
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a trustee gathers and sells the debtor’s nonexempt assets and uses the proceeds to pay off creditors, which Lockhart said number between 50 and 100.
Lockhart’s bankruptcy filing comes a month after the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy ordered it to immediately stop using leaky underground waste and stormwater tunnels for disposal, forcing the company to store the water in above-ground containers instead and to truck it off-site for disposal.
EGLE had previously cited Lockhart for multiple violations of its operating permit and a district supervisor for the agency told the company in an Aug. 16 letter that it was continuing “to operate in a manner that results in discharges to the ground and surface waters of the state.”
The company’s June spill to the Flint River was the most notable of the discharges, resulting in emergency responses by the city of Flint, Genesee County, the state and federal government.
Thousand gallons of oil-based material spilled into Flint River
EGLE has said the spilled mixture was a stew of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, which emergency responders attempted to collect using absorbent booms and skimmer boats.
MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Rajinder Minhas, president of Lockhart, for comment on Wednesday, Oct. 12.
His company purchased its 13-acre manufacturing site in Flint in 1982, according to Flint Journal files, and produced sulfonates, emulsifiers, rust prevention additives, corrosion inhibitors and additives for metalworking fluids and greases here, according to the company’s website.
State records show that environmental concerns about the property date back decades, including a report by the city more than 18 years ago that indicated groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds was infiltrating into a city sewer from the Lockhart property.
Prior to the discovery of the June spill from a fallout leading to the Flint River, Lockhart had been cited by the state for maintaining incomplete training records for employees, improperly labeling hazardous waste in a satellite drum, keeping two totes of barium sulfate liquid waste with no protection from weather, and using concrete vaults with no leak detection capability to store liquid industrial by-products.
EGLE has said its laboratory chemical analysis established that pollutants entering the Flint River near Lockhart were a match to the wastewater inside the facility and the company has previously accepted responsibility for the breach that caused the river contamination
Read more at The Flint Journal:
State order company that caused Flint River spill to end use of waste transport tunnels
Lockhart cited for Flint River spill. State says operations have not improved
State says Lockhart Chemical is likely source of Flint River chemical spill
Likely source of Flint River chemical spill had no leak detection on concrete vaults
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