ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — Hours after a shelter-in-place that had been in effect for more than two weeks was lifted, citizens who were close by questioned whether it was safe.
"I don't necessarily feel unsafe, but I don't know. I feel like they're just saying that just to do something," Stanley Hamm said.
He and his parents have lived just yards away from BioLab since 1971. They were there when the first toxic disaster happened in 2004.
"That time we left. Now, it's just like you're a prisoner in your own home by command, which I don't like that, but it is what it is, I guess," Hamm said.
They're being careful -- not running the air conditioning and staying indoors. They originally left but came back when the county said it was safe. When the shelter-in-place was activated again, they were forced to stay because his parents are older.
"It was better for them to not be moved around too much, plus they want to be here," Hamm said.
Still, the uncertainty continues. He said they're all worried about the long-term effects of breathing in chemicals.
"At first, they said they didn't think it was harmful, but yet when I actually got a good whiff of it, it was harmful to me. When I first inhaled it, my throat burned for a couple of days, and I kept having headaches," Hamm said.
Right now, around BioLab and the nearby pond, green water is still bubbling, machinery is nearby, and the air quality is being monitored by the EPA. Hamm said all the fish in the pond were killed.
"I don't see much difference than yesterday, so why should I trust this? I feel we're being lied to just like I feel like we're going to be lied to from this point forward," Hamm said.
While the community wants to hear more from BioLab, they're nowhere to be found. They were even a no-show at the county's news conference on Thursday afternoon to announce the shelter-in-place was lifted.
"We extended an invitation to Bio to attend this press conference. Quite frankly, it is a slap in the face," Rockdale County Chairman Oz Nesbitt Sr. said as the county's frustration boils over.
"I feel like the citizens and business owners who have been held hostage for the last 19 days deserve to hear directly from the leadership and corporate management of Biolab," Nesbitt Sr. said.
Right now, the daily shelter-in-place from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for those who live and work within a two-mile radius of Biolab is lifted. Rockdale County Public Schools also told 11Alive that students will now return to in-person classes on Monday.