DEQ ‘emergency’ application still pending after 19 months

A court hearing on an “emergency application” filed 19 months ago for a temporary injunction to prevent Chickasha businessman Brannan Bordwine from storing or disposing of supplies of volatile hand sanitizer was pushed back last week for the fifth time.

The state Department of Environmental Quality filed the application in Grady County District Court on Nov. 18, 2022, and it was granted later that day, records show.

A hearing on the case was originally set for Dec. 1, 2022, but was rescheduled for April 11, 2023. And again, for Aug. 14, 2023. Then again, for Jan. 30, 2024. And once more, for June 20, 2024. And now for Dec. 17, 2024.

Bordwine was storing numerous pallets and totes of unsold, FDA-recalled, methanol-laced hand sanitizer at three locations in Grady County: two in Chickasha and one in Ninnekah. Five fires broke out at the three sites during an 11-month period between August 2022 and July 2023.

During one of the fires, on Aug. 7, 2022, the cast-iron lids on two manholes were blown off and the municipal sanitary sewer briefly caught fire from sanitizer that flowed into the line, state and local fire officials reported.

A permit is required for the storage and disposal of hazardous waste, and the DEQ deems the hand sanitizer to be hazardous waste.

The hand sanitizer is considered hazardous waste/material for two reasons, Erin Hatfield, spokesperson for the DEQ, told Southwest Ledger. “The material flashed and is considered hazardous due to ignitability. Also, a good portion of the hand sanitizer is actually recalled material (and not just expired).” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration “states that anything recalled is hazardous waste and must be disposed of properly.”

Bordwine and his companies, including Bordwine Development Inc., did not and do not have a DEQ permit to “treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste,” the agency informed Grady County District Judge Kory S. Kirkland.

In a response filed in December 2022, Bordwine denied the DEQ’s accusations and demanded that the agency “provide proof to support its … allegations.”

In addition to applying for the temporary injunction, the DEQ’s executive director, Scott Thompson, issued an administrative compliance order against Brannan Bordwine and his Bordwine Development company on Aug. 22, 2022.

Besides directing Bordwine to cease-and-desist his sanitizer disposal operations, Thompson assessed an administrative penalty of $6,653,850 – the largest cash penalty ever imposed by the agency.

Bordwine’s attorney, Peter Scimeca of Oklahoma City, said his client appealed the fine by requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. So far as is known, Bordwine has not paid the contested fine.

In a related matter, Blessed Chickasha Collective filed a lawsuit in Grady County against Bordwine on Feb. 9, 2023, alleging breach of contract for improperly storing, transporting and handling hand sanitizer “which caused a fire and contamination” of Blessed Chickasha Collective’s property. A pre-trial conference in that case is set for Sept. 12, and a jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 1 before Judge Kirkland.

Bordwine was storing the hand sanitizer in accordance with a joint venture agreement with Latitude Liquids of Arkansas – whose chief executive officer identifies himself as a “certified executive chef.”

In a document filed in Blessed Chickasha’s lawsuit, Bordwine relates that he billed Latitude Liquids $744,273 for his storage of tainted hand sanitizer that Latitude Liquids transported to his locations in Grady County.

Through the first week of August 2022, 4e Brands Northamerica LLC, the wholesaler of the hand sanitizer, reported it removed approximately 2,700 pallets from warehouses in Indiana and Texas and “sent them for destruction at Latitude’s destruction facility in Oklahoma” – Brannan Bordwine’s storage sites in Grady County.

According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, when 4e filed for dissolution in February 2022 it had 7,402 pallets of inventory that included adulterated hand sanitizer which was recalled by the FDA “due to the presence of methanol in the product.”

Because of the contamination and recalls, 4e’s business operations ground to a halt. “The majority of its inventory was deemed worthless and the corporation faced multiple class action, personal injury, and wrongful death lawsuits, as well as customer demands for refunds or replacement products,” wrote David Dunn, a financial adviser and chief restructuring officer for the bankruptcy.

The company is “no longer operating,” according to Dunn. 4e Brands Northamerica filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Laredo Division, in February 2022, “to fully wind down its business.”