News Track: C6-Zero litigation might continue for over a year

With cleanup of pollutants strewn by an explosion nearly two years ago at a Marengo recycling facility now completed, the owner of the plant maintains his proprietary process ultimately will succeed despite his “missteps” and “mistruths” from regulators.

Background

An explosion and fire happened about 11 a.m. Dec. 8, 2022, at the C6-Zero facility in Marengo, while potential investors were touring the site with company executives.

The company said it used custom-built equipment and chemicals to break down used or faulty shingles into fiberglass, fuel and sand. The company said it had begun testing the equipment in October 2022 and was not fully operational at the time of the explosion.

A conveyor system moved shingles through three large vessels called trommels, which collected different ingredients of the shingles. But maintenance that day on the equipment led to an explosion and injuries — the result of inadequate worker training and protective equipment and incomplete emergency plans, the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded. The agency noted there was no approved automatic sprinkler system on site to extinguish a fire.

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There are four pending lawsuits against C6-Zero that have been filed by seven people who worked at the facility and one potential investor who was touring it at the time of the explosion. Their recollections of the incident were redacted in OSHA documents recently obtained by The Gazette, but snippets of documents associated with the lawsuits describe the chaos that ensued:

A conveyor belt between two of the trommels became stuck, and worker Cody Blasberg "was instructed to open the bottom hatch of the sealed machine while it was running to avoid a shutdown," his lawsuit alleges.

Joni Parizek, who was working on a nearby trommel, noticed a bit of gray smoke as Blasberg and another worker tried to free the conveyor — another witness said the men used torches — and Parizek was lifted into the air and thrown about 5 feet by the explosion, her lawsuit states.

Investor Steven Bathgate was nearby and said he was thrown into a safety wall. Two company executives carried him outside as he saw workers scrambling to escape. Two of them were on fire and screaming for help.

Worker Kelly Regenold, who was knocked off a ladder, "barely escaped with his life" and was badly burned, his lawsuit alleges.

The blast blew holes in the roof and walls, and a ball of fire engulfed the building. Debris, including concrete, fell as people tried to escape.

Worker Amanda Dawson crawled through the debris to a sorting room, where she told a co-worker to flee and thought she saw her supervisor dead. She heard screams of "Help me!" and saw skin falling off of people, her lawsuit alleges.

Howard Brand III, the company's founder, was also injured, along with Vice President of Finance Troy Lavigne, OSHA records show.

There were 20 people injured by the blast who sought treatment at a medical facility, Iowa County Sheriff Robert Rotter said. No one died, but the injuries included severe burns, respiratory damage and broken bones.

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What’s happened since

The cleanup of pollutants from the explosion and fire concluded in recent months, paving the way for final enforcement actions against C6-Zero and potential additional fines from state and federal regulators. There are also four pending lawsuits filed against the company by people who were injured.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources have declined to reveal what additional penalties they might seek and when. The company — mostly through its insurance carrier — has paid more than $1.5 million for cleanup and worker safety violations.

The future of C6-Zero is unclear. Brand declined to comment in a brief phone call with The Gazette. "I have nothing to say to you. Have a good day," he said.

In a "special message" posted to the C6-Zero website that was last updated in March, Brand was optimistic that his proprietary process eventually would succeed despite his "missteps" and "the mistruths of the previous regulators."

"Unfortunately, even today there are people who still try to use those missteps against me, the technology, and the company," the message said. "They don’t believe in the American Dream and that all of us have the opportunity to build a better life using lessons learned from our past as motivation."

The misstep Brand said that "has caused me more pain than most people will ever know" was an unspecified financial dispute. He did not mention the injured workers in the message.

Those who filed lawsuits against C6-Zero allege the company knew about the dangers of its recycling process and repeatedly avoided oversight by state regulators. It's unclear whether the litigation will result in settlements. Trials for the lawsuits are set to begin in February 2025. The final scheduled trial is set for January 2026.

More lawsuits are possible. State law requires them to be filed within two years of the injury — a deadline that is about four months away.