CHICKASHA — Local businessman Brannan Bordwine has acknowledged that an untold number of pallets of contaminated, flammable hand sanitizer which burned last year at three storage sites he operated in Grady County were received from Latitude Liquids in a business “venture.”
The admission is in a crossclaim Bordwine and two of his companies made last month in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this year in Grady County District Court. Bordwine also claims that Latitude Liquids owes him $630,000.
Blessed Chickasha Collective sued Bordwine and three of his companies, alleging negligence and breach of contract, because of a fire last year that consumed a large volume of hand sanitizer “improperly stored” on property leased from the complainant.
The state Department of Environmental Quality reported receiving a complaint last July that Bordwine was receiving semi-truckloads of hand sanitizer at the former Chickasha Manufacturing site, 5501 S. Fourth Street (U.S. Highway 81 and state Highway 19), and dumping the product on the ground.
Bordwine “entered into an oral lease” of that property from Blessed Chickasha Collective in June 2022, the lawsuit petition relates. A condition of the lease was that Bordwine’s operations were to be conducted “in a safe manner which would protect [the] property from damage.”
A fire broke out at the site on Aug. 7, 2022, and burned for several days. Ethanol-laced hand sanitizer at the site was so volatile that when the fire erupted, 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.
During the fire, a warehouse on the property and its contents were “a total loss” and flames consumed all hand sanitizer stored at the site, the State Fire Marshal’s office confirmed. The building reportedly encompassed approximately 100,000 square feet of space.
DEQ personnel inspecting a drainage ditch “in close proximity” to the site the day after the fire reported smelling hand sanitizer and finding dead vegetation for approximately 725 feet. Agency representatives collected water samples for analysis.
The DEQ “determined that there is contamination to waterways and soil on the property” attributed to the improper storage, transportation and handling of the hand sanitizer, Blessed Chickasha Collective alleges.
Blessed Chickasha Collective sued Brannan Bordwine individually; Bordwine Urban and Rural Development LLC; Bordwine 963PPRD; and Bordwine Development LLC; along with Liquid Latitude LLC also known as Latitude Liquids LLC.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 9 in Grady County District Court by Oklahoma City attorney R. Lyle Clemens and is still pending.
In his response to the lawsuit, Brannan Bordwine denied that his companies “improperly” stored, transported or handled large amounts of hand sanitizer and caused the Aug. 7 fire. He also denied committing negligence and breach of a contract with Blessed Chickasha Collective.
Bordwine also contends the alleged damages were:
• Due to “an act of God.”
• The result of the conduct and actions of a third party over which he and his companies “had no control.”
• The result of “supervening or intervening causes” over which he “had no control” and for which he is “not responsible.”
• The result of “an unavoidable casualty or misfortune, as the term is defined by Oklahoma law.”
Little known about Blessed Chickasha
Details about Blessed Chickasha Collective are scant. It is a domestic limited liability company incorporated on Dec. 16, 2020, records of the Oklahoma Secretary of State show.
The registered agent listed for Blessed Chickasha Collective is Kevin Paul Pham of Oklahoma City.
Southwest Ledger called the offices of Clemens and Pham on March 29 and left messages, asking whether they have any knowledge of what Blessed Chickasha Collective does and who its principals are. Neither Pham nor Clemens returned the phone calls.
Pham, 46, has an extensive criminal background, records of the Oklahoma State Courts Network show.
Bordwine acknowledges joint business venture with Latitude Liquids
In the crossclaim, Bordwine Development Inc. acknowledges that it “entered into a joint venture” with Latitude Liquids last year; the date of the consummation isn’t specified.
However, Scott Thompson, executive director of the DEQ, reported that his agency received emails from Bordwine on Aug. 2, 2022, which included a “Latitude Liquids Proposal for Service” and an “Excavation @ 1003 West Quail Road Scope of Work” in Ninnekah.
Latitude Liquids agreed to share with Bordwine Development “certain revenues and expenses,” such as proceeds from “the ultimate sale of the constituent components of the hand sanitizer, including the reclaimed ethanol.” Latitude Liquids also agreed to compensate Bordwine Development “for certain services,” the counterclaim contends.
Latitude Liquids transported “truckloads of thousands of pallets” of hand sanitizer to three sites in Grady County that Bordwine owned or leased to “store, depackage,(sic) and otherwise handle” the product.
Bordwine Development submitted to Latitude Liquids five invoices totaling $744,273, plus an invoice dated Dec. 31, 2022, for $75,000 for “labor, per diem, fuel and housing” – a grand total of $819,273.
Latitude Liquids made one payment of $189,169, leaving it indebted to Bordwine Development for $630,104, Bordwine alleges. In addition, the plaintiffs claim “other damages” as a result of the “breach of the joint venture agreement,” including Bordwine’s “share of revenue from the reclamation” of hand sanitizer.
Fires destroy most of hand sanitizer stored by Bordwine
On Aug. 11, 2022, four days after the fire at the former Chickasha Manufacturing site, firefighters were summoned to extinguish flames at Bordwine Development’s principal headquarters at 1102 Pikes Peak Road in Chickasha. Bordwine owns that piece of property, records in the Grady County Clerk’s Office show.
According to the DEQ, hand sanitizer dumped into three roll-off containers on the property was incinerated.
DEQ’s Thompson issued an emergency order on Aug. 12, 2022, which charged that Bordwine was creating “a public nuisance” by improper transportation, storage and disposal of the hand sanitizer. “Immediate action” was required to “protect the public health, welfare, and environment.”
He demanded that Bordwine “immediately cease” transporting, receiving and improperly disposing of “any and all” hand sanitizer.
DEQ inspectors toured Bordwine’s headquarters site on Aug. 14, 2022, and observed 28 “totes” (approximately 8,400 gallons) of hand sanitizer. A tote is an industrial-size plastic tub in which liquids can be transported on railroad cars. DEQ inspectors said they also found 20 to 30 pallets loaded with hand sanitizer.
DEQ exec issues cease-and-desist order, imposes $6.65M fine
Thompson subsequently issued a mandate on Aug. 22 that directed Bordwine and his company to:
• Refrain from transferring, transporting, donating, selling, or otherwise making hand sanitizer available for public use.
• Provide the DEQ with an “action plan” to adequately “identify, remove, and remediate the nature and extent of the release/discharge of hazardous waste” at the company’s three sites.
• Provide the DEQ with an “approvable compliance plan” to lawfully ship and dispose of all hand sanitizer in their possession, custody or control. The product stored at Bordwine’s HQ on Pikes Peak Road “has not yet been removed, as an approvable plan has not been submitted to DEQ by the facility,” a DEQ spokesperson told Southwest Ledger on Oct. 10.
In the administrative compliance order he issued Aug. 22, Thompson imposed a record $6,653,850 administrative fine against Brannan Bordwine and his development company – the largest in the agency’s history, “based on the facts and circumstances of this case…” Thompson also ordered Bordwine Development to properly dispose of their remaining supplies of hand sanitizer and cease sales of their product.
Two months later, on Oct. 18, 2022, a raging fire destroyed a warehouse Bordwine leased in Ninnekah at 1003 W. Quail Lane, on U.S. Highway 81 south of state Highway 19. Also consumed by flames were an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pallets of ethanol-laced hand sanitizer stored at the site, which formerly was occupied by H&B Machine & Manufacturing.
A hearing before a DEQ administrative law judge on Thompson’s order was tentatively scheduled for late March but was rescheduled for July. The multimillion-dollar fine remains unpaid.