On Monday night the chief executive of Westwin Elements told a packed town hall that she was committed to transparency about her company’s plans to build a nickel refinery near The Highlands residential community in Richmond Hill.
Less than 24 hours later two facts emerged that cast doubt on that stance.
Bryan County commissioners held an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon about the alarming fact presented by Westwin founder KaLeigh Long: that the property her company is seeking to purchase was filled with toxic waste — a fact that neither they nor the county attorney could corroborate.
Meanwhile, The Current GA learned that the company’s application for an air pollution permit to state regulators was submitted under a separate name — Project Patriot — rather than Westwin. Only once, midway through the 100-page document filed on Dec. 12, 2025 that requests an expedited permit process does the name “Westwin Elements” appear.
It’s unclear why Westwin would have requested the permit in such a manner. Neither the company nor the consulting firm that submitted the application responded to requests for comment. Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division does not require officials to verify ownership of the company in the review of an air permit application, said Steve Allison, manager of EPD’s Stationary Source Permitting Program.
In Richmond Hill city and county officials spent Tuesday mulling over the facts presented — and omitted — by Long during the previous night’s town hall, the first time that the 30-year-old entrepreneur had addressed residents since negotiations between her Oklahoma company and the Bryan County Development Authority started in April 2025.
For example, Westwin didn’t tell town hall attendees about the pending air pollution permit, even though a question was asked about what permits would be needed to operate the refinery.
And Long’s statement about that the former Caeserstone Technologies facility in Bryan County was saturated with toxic waste, including arsenic and silica dust, and barrels of unspecified hazardous waste solidified fears that hundreds of residential homes were facing environmental threats from industries that no one in the county was clamoring to call a neighbor.
Long told the town hall that Westwin’s plans were “90% finished” to make Richmond Hill the site of America’s only nickel refinery, something that would help build the county’s stockpile of a metal critical to national security. The company was ready to buy the abandoned property for $35 million and clean up the toxic waste that Caesarstone allegedly left when it closed operations in 2023.
Her assertion was intended to help win over skeptics that her start-up company was ready to be a good corporate neighbor and build trust.
Instead, it raised alarm bells.
News of a potential toxic threat took Bryan County Attorney Aaron Kappler and the county commissioners by surprise, Kappler said, and it raised new questions from hundreds of skeptical residents about how the company has presented itself to city and county officials.
At a specially called meeting Tuesday afternoon, Kappler offered the commissioners a way to slow the Westwin project, in the face of immense public criticism.
While acknowledging the limit of the commissioners powers or influence to stop Westwin’s project, he said the county could use state law to investigate claims of the potential threat to public health and safety at the Caesarstone site.
At the end of the 15-minute meeting, the commissioners voted to give Kappler the authority to investigate the claims of toxic materials and trigger a state law that requires property owners to clean up such waste before a property could be sold.
Cheers erupted in the crowded room in the wake of the unanimous vote, as attendees praised the maneuver.
“This could halt things. It felt like this was getting shoved down our throats,” said Sandra Morgan, speaking of Westwin’s plans. “It restores my faith in local government and democracy.”
Commission Chair Carter Infinger, who last week was threatened with a defamation suit by Westwin, told the assembled residents that the vote reflected public sentiment against the refinery. “We want the citizens of Bryan County to know we’re on your side. We’re not fighting against you,” he said. “This might be the most important issue that I’ve ever dealt with since being elected eight years ago.”
After the commissioner’s meeting, most of the nearly 150 people in attendance stopped to sign petitions, including one to the EPD, seeking to pressure state and federal regulatory bodies to examine Westwin’s plans.
A Jan. 7, 2026 announcement from EPD indicates the public has until Feb. 6 to submit comments. It is unclear when the EPD will decide on the application on behalf of Project Patriot. There is no legal entity of that name registered with Georgia’s Secretary of State.
That notice of public comment does not list an owner pursuing the air permit, and rather simply lists the entity name as “Richmond Hill Facility” located at 1 Caesarstone Dr., Richmond Hill. That is the address of the former Caesarstone facility Westwin has indicated it intends to purchase.
The lack of a company name on the EPD announcement is unusual. Two other announcements made the same day indicate specific state-registered companies — International Paper and Golden Peanut Company — as the applicants.
Jeff Beauvais, the north coast advocate for One Hundred Miles, said the behavior contradicts Long’s message to Richmond Hill residents.
“During the standing-room only meeting last night, Westwin repeatedly pledged transparency, accountability, and a commitment to be a good neighbor in Bryan County,” Beauvais told The Current. “Not disclosing that they submitted an expedited Air Quality Permit to Georgia EPD in December, well before there was widespread public awareness of their proposal, is not transparency. Naming their proposed project the “Richmond Hill Facility” and having only a single instance of the name “Westwin” in their permit application is not transparency.”
Beauvais says that One Hundred Miles will be requesting from EPD a 60-day extension for the public comment period for the air pollution permit.
An expedited application such as one presented in the apparent Westwin permit is one that is processed on a shorter timeline as compared to a non-expedited application. It costs an additional $10,000, which EPD has received.
Beauvais said Westwin should welcome further scrutiny and public feedback, especially as Long repeatedly encouraged residents to do their own research on the carbonyl nickel refining process her company intends to use.
“If Westwin is as committed to being a good neighbor and steward of the environment as they claim, then we expect they would gladly support a 60-day extension of the public comment period,” he said.
EPD’s procedures allow for expedited permits to be revoked if the application turns out to be “very controversial” after it is submitted.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Current.
