Review finds no contamination at Bryan County’s Caesarstone site

An independent environmental review has given the Caesarstone property a clean bill of health, Bryan County Attorney Aaron Kappler told the county commission Tuesday.

The Caesarstone site was where Oklahoma-based Westwin Elements wanted to build a nickel refinery, a proposal that alarmed local residents. Westwin’s plans were delayed by the environmental review and ultimately doomed when officials made it clear in June that zoning prohibited a metal refinery.

Westwin’s CEO KaLeigh Long alleged in February the site was contaminated, Kappler reminded the commission Tuesday.

“In February 2026, many of us were in the city of Richmond Hill when KaLeigh Long came before us and pronounced to the world that the site was contaminated, hazardous waste barrels, and all that stuff,” he said. “The next day, y’all and the city of Richmond Hill authorized a public nuisance investigation to find out what was happening on the site to make sure nothing was going on improperly.”

Kappler gave the commission a rundown of the results of environmental investigations at the site since 2020. That year, Caesarstone initiated a so-called “phase II investigation,” which requires soil and groundwater sampling. It found no contamination. In 2025, Westwin commissioned the same type of study after talks with Caesarstone began. This second study claimed to find elevated arsenic levels in a monitoring well. Two months later, the Development Authority of Bryan County evaluated Westwin’s study and rejected the finding of unacceptable arsenic levels as the result of a faulty sample.

With Long’s allegation of contamination in February, Bryan County and Richmond Hill jointly went to work on their own study, hiring an Atlanta-based firm with no previous connection to the site.

“We made immediate contact with Caesarstone,” Kappler said. “I also made immediate contact with Westwin. Caesarstone cooperated. Westwin did not. Not very surprising.”

Caesarstone installed three additional groundwater testing wells to facilitate thorough testing, Kappler said. Testing in March by the well installer, GeoSynTec, found arsenic above the regulatory limit in the original well but not the new ones. EPD determined the arsenic is likely naturally occurring in the soil, “which is consistent with what prior environmental consultants have recommended,” Kappler told the board.

United Consulting, the independent expert hired by the city and county, determined there was not a release of arsenic on the site.

A site inspection did identify sealed metal and plastic drums on site, which the Georgia Environmental Protection Division confirmed were properly sealed. Caesarstone arranged for Safety Clean, an environmental disposal company, to remove all that material from the site, Kappler said. And he noted that EPD fined Caesarstone, not for site contamination but for administrative errors in failing to notify the regulators about its shutdown and failure to make a hazardous waste determination.

Ticking off the existing zoning restrictions as well as the end of negotiations, Kappler assured the board Westwin was not coming to Richmond Hill.

“Westwin is not under contract to purchase that site,” he said. “They have stopped negotiations with Caesarstone, and Caesarstone is in negotiations and contract with an entirely different party.”

Westwin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Tide brings regular notes and observations on news and events by The Current staff.