Staying connected: Business, political ties to soil amendments seems to benefit spreaders

In Georgia, there are a few major companies that handle many soil amendments. Those companies are run by a small network of people often with strong business and sometimes political connections.

In one case, the Georgia Department of Agriculture seemed willing to move quickly to protect one of these companies from an environmental complaint — a situation former state Secretary of Agriculture Gary Black said was not out of the ordinary.

In March 2021, a complaint to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division spurred an investigation revealing that a company was illegally spreading a soil amendment with no registration on a Warren County property owned by a company called Little Ogeechee Farms. The complainant also noted that tanker trucks were "constantly going to (the) property," and worried about water quality issues associated with whatever was being spread.

The EPD sent out an employee to Little Ogeechee Farms on March 29, 2021. Upon arrival the employee was told by the business owner, Justin Echols, the soil amendments came from Nestle Purina and Publix. The employee confirmed that day the soil amendment, originating from a Publix dairy facility, was unregistered.

EPD found that the soil amendment was spread by a company called GWAR, operated by businessman Kacy Cronan, which has now been acquired by a larger company called Waste Eliminator. Also involved, and organizing the registrations for the soil amendments, was Proponic Solutions, another soil amendment company owned by businessman Jeff Fair, who had connections to Cronan.

Fair declined to comment for this story. Cronan also declined numerous requests for comment.

According to the EPD report, landowner Echols said he didn't know any of the soil amendments were unregistered, but that he would consult with GWAR to get to the bottom of it.

“Mr. Cronan said he was working directly with Commissioner (Gary) Black, Dept. of Ag., and the material should have been approved,” noted the EPD investigator.

A spokesperson for Purina said the company also was unaware of the situation, but that its contract required their waste be plow-injected straight into the ground. Publix did not respond to multiple inquiries from the USA Today Network.

"Products without an obvious, well-documented benefit are not appropriate for our registration programs," a GDA employee wrote to Fair and Cronan on March 30, 2021. "Negligible benefits aside, we can approve 'H-91 pb' as it is."

On March 31, 2021, the EPD issued a Notice of Violation, an official document the agency uses to inform individuals that they've broken the law and that enforcement actions are forthcoming. But by next day, Echols communicated with the EPD that the amendments were approved and officially registered with GDA. EPD dropped the investigation a few days later. Nothing came of it.

What GDA asked to green-light a soil amendment

During that window of three workdays, GDA asked Fair to produce "data or studies" to demonstrate that the amendment would agriculturally benefit soils. His response included general information from the UGA Agricultural Extension about soil amendments that are available online, but not any data or studies of his particular product.

GDA had no further questions in the email exchange. Otherwise, Fair and Cronan were all set; the email served as "formal approval."

The soil amendment's conveniently timed approval came five days after the initial complaint was lodged with the EPD. Before that initial complaint, emails obtained by the USA Today Network through open records requests show that Fair and Cronan received approval for one of the soil amendments found at Little Ogeechee Farms, named H-96, in January 2021. Fair had to follow up twice over the course of several weeks in order to get that amendment approved.

The rushed order is business as usual, according to then-Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black.

“We’d do it for anyone," Black said in an interview with the USA Today Network before he left office, adding that as long as a product met the department’s specifications, they’d go ahead and give the product approval.

County takes action, too

On March 25, 2021, Little Ogeechee Farms and Echols also received a nuisance citation from Warren County.

Warren County attorney Scott Kelly, who was responsible for prosecuting the case, said that the county was receiving complaints about odor and vermin due to the application of soil amendments. Kelly agreed to a pretrial diversion, agreeing to drop the charges if certain unspecified actions were taken, and on June 30, 2022, dismissed the case.

“The complaints diminished significantly after the citation was issued,” Kelly said, adding the attorney for the defendants was “very good to work with.”

On March 17, 2022, Little Ogeechee Farms sold some of its Warren County property — 478 acres — to Smooth Rock Farm for $1,268,000.

Reached by phone, Echols, a Greensboro resident, declined to comment. The USA Today Network also sent an email with detailed questions about Little Ogeechee Farms to an attorney for the company, who forwarded the email on to Echols. No response was received.

State Rep. Trey Rhodes, also of Greensboro, listed Little Ogeechee Farms as a business investment in 2021 on his financial disclosure. His financial disclosure for 2022 and 2020 does not list Little Ogeechee Farms as an investment.

“The entity in 2021 had several business investments and several investors. I do not currently hold a position or ownership interest in the entity,” Rhodes wrote in a statement shared through the press office for the Georgia House of Representatives.

In July of 2021, Little Ogeechee Farms was named as a debtor in a UCC filing — a legal document filed when someone takes out a lien, in this case to purchase a piece of farm equipment. Also named as debtors in the document are Echols, Rhodes, and Kacy Cronnan, and one other person who seems to have been involved with Little Ogeechee Farms. Other UCC filings by the farm do not mention Cronnan.

Political connections and soil amendments

Cronan is involved with some major players not only in soil amendment, but waste overall in Georgia. And he has his own political connections.

When Waste Eliminator acquired GWAR in 2022, Cronan joined Waste Eliminator as a partner, according to news reports. Waste Eliminator trucks have become a common site in some rural counties, hauling tanks of soil amendment.

In 2021, Cronan founded a compost company called Georgia Soil, now operated by Ward Black, the son of Gary Black. That company is also now under Waste Eliminator.

Ward Black has described Cronan as his boss, but also re-iterated to other media outlets that Georgia Soil has nothing to do with liquid soil amendments. Ward Black forwarded on a list of questions from the USA Today Network for an official company response, but the Network never received any.

Gary Black denied any suggestion that Cronan's soil amendments were approved quickly due to personal connections.

Cronan and his father, Kenneth Cronan, also had ties to former Georgia governor Nathan Deal.

In 2011, then-governor Deal appointed Kacy Cronan to the Georgia Board of Public Safety while Deal was still a partner in Gainesville Salvage and Disposal with Kenneth Cronan. Kenneth Cronan received an appointment to the Georgia Ports Authority.

While running for governor, Deal faced allegations that he improperly lobbied for a landfill and a state contract for his auto salvage business while in congress. In both cases, businesses owned by Kenneth Cronan, or co-owned by Deal and Cronan, were involved. Gainesville Waste and Recycling was listed as the applicant for the landfill on state paperwork, according to an AP investigation at the time.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Business and politics intertwined in spread of soil amendments