Middlesboro, Ky. — Attorneys for Smithfield Packing Co. are not talking openly about suing the contractors working on the refrigeration system at the company’s plant here for causing a major anhydrous ammonia release in September 2009. Since that date the state has fined Smithfield as much $140,000 for the ammonia reaching nearby streams and causing the deaths of a large part of the fish population, and also for not reporting the release to the proper officials. “We took responsibility, dealt with the environmental agency, and cleaned up the problem. But we think they caused the release,” Stuart Leeth, Smithfield assistant vice president for environmental and corporate affairs, insisted, referring to the defendants in the suit, which includes Armstrong Industrial Refrigeration and Maintenance Service, Johnny Jones and his company, Jones Refrigeration, and Precision Boiler Repair and Welding Inc., all based in Knoxville, Tenn. Douglas Logsdon of Lexington, Ky., Smithfield’s attorney on the case, limited his remarks, saying only that the three contractors were engaged to do work on the refrigeration. “The basic framework is that the Smithfield packing company was in the course of a plant expansion and the expansion required that the refrigeration system be expanded also. In the course of (their) work to accomplish that expansion, we allege in the complaint that there was negligence on the part of the defendants.” Logsdon would not disclose how much Smithfield is seeking, but did say “there were some fines that had to be paid as result of the release, and we are asking to recover these amounts among other relief.” He said the suit had been transferred to the U.S. Eastern District Court for Kentucky in London.
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