Posted on November 15, 2018
Last year’s tornado and straight winds that hit the city of Albany and Dougherty County must not have attracted the attention of the competing debris removal contractors, since Ceres Environmental captured the contract for both the city and county without anyone contesting. For many months, they worked extensively until most all the debris was cleaned up and everything appeared back to normal.
This year, things have been different after Hurricane Michael.
A simple thing of picking up debris starts to get complicated when you involve the government, mainly FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers.
You have to go back to Hurricane Katrina, when a small-town contractor was hired by a big contractor to clean up his town and to make decent money at $9 a cubic yard, roughly the size of a washing machine.
As soon as this local contractor lined up the debris for pickup, out-of-town contractors that worked for the same larger company he was working for sneaked into his territory and scooped up his debris. He hired a lawyer and sued the company that had hired him for breach of contract. Hurricane Katrina cost $1.3 billion to clean up; much of that went to contractors.
AshBritt Environmental went from a two-person landscaping business to a major cleanup company that was awarded $850 million with an increased option up to $1 billion, to remove Katrina debris in the entire state of Mississippi. They also received a no-open-bid contract for Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. They were accused of inflating cleanup costs for both storms, as well as Hurricane Irma in Florida. This is a lucrative business
Even back then, Homeland Security and congressional critics decided that the process of cleaning up and payment for the cleanups should be restructured.
Federal debris removal contracts are being handled by the Army Corps of Engineers on FEMA’s behalf, yet many of the debris companies contend that they have been forced to hire contractors on the basis of their political connections.
Some of the big companies such as AshBritt, Ceres Environmental Services and Environmental Chemical Corp. are among the companies involved in storm cleanup. There is a “Catch 22” whereas the Corps refuses to release details of its contracts, and the contractors say they cannot give our information without the Corps’ permission.
Move forward to recent Hurricane Irma. Lee and Collier counties in Florida were hit with major debris removal finances due to first-come, first-served payments by FEMA that were performed by AshBritt and two other major debris collectors. The process of collection and costs caught the attention of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, which in 2017, issued subpoenas to the debris collectors.
While Ceres and DRC Emergency Service cooperated with the investigation, AshBritt filed an action in court to squash or modify the investigative subpoena for delays and potential price increases in cleaning up Hurricane Irma. Cost of debris cleanup was ranging from $7.50 to more than $20 a cubic yard. On the high end, if you had a truck and trailer that held 60 cubic yards, a contractor could make up to $1,200 for each load and easily do $12,000 or more a day for each truck working sunrise to sunset.
In January 2018, cleanup contractors had to stop their cleanup plans in Sonoma County, Calif., when AshBritt filed a contract challenge protest with the Army Corps of Engineers on Ceres and ECC receiving the contract to clean up fire debris.
What do the Georgia counties have to do with this?
The city of Albany had a temporary contract with Ceres to clean up Hurricane Michael’s debris, which was soon followed by the county also contracting Ceres, similar to the storms of January 2017. I would think they were hired by both because of their past acceptable performance.
This debris cleanup ceased in both Albany and Dougherty County the weekend of Oct. 26.
Ceres was contracted by Bainbridge/Decatur County and Donalsonville/Seminole County.
This debris cleanup ceased Oct. 29.
Ceres was contracted by Colquitt/Miller County, which was also under the auspices of the Army Corps of Engineers. Yes, this too ceased on Oct. 31.
Just like Sonoma County, AshBritt and other debris contract companies have filed a contract challenge protest with the Army Corps of Engineers for these counties in Georgia and possibly other counties in which Ceres has a presence.
The Florida Attorney General said, “Sitting debris is a health and safety hazard and needs to be removed as soon as possible, but instead of doing their jobs and helping Floridians recover, apparently some contractors are delaying the work or requesting higher rates.”
The Sonoma County Supervisor said, “Every day that we stop in terms of debris removal puts people back … in their minds, in their hearts and in their business … on being able to get to the point where they can even consider rebuilding.”
I was in the middle of the destructive January tornado in which five people were killed within walking distance, and I received damage again from Hurricane Michael, but am ready to go on with my rebuild.
Debris sat festering outside our homes, and while the protests were settled, county residents in Georgia paid the price for no storm debris removal.
Paul Murray is chairman of the SOWEGA Veterans Coalition and an independent contract involved in debris removal throughout southwest Georgia.
Source: ALBANY Herald
