Jack Daniel's ordered to stop building new barrel house amid controversy over out-of-control 'whiskey fungus'
- A court order is forcing Jack Daniel's to stop construction on a barrel house in Tennessee.
- It was prompted by a lawsuit from locals outraged by an alcohol-fed fungus engulfing their homes.
A Tennessee county has ordered Jack Daniel's to immediately halt construction on a barrel house, an attorney representing Lincoln County told Insider on Thursday.
The company's plans to build barrel houses in Lincoln County have angered residents, whose homes and property are covered in an out-of-control black "whiskey fungus" that feeds on evaporated alcohol.
J.B. Cox, the chancellor for Tennessee's 17th District Chancery Court, instructed Lincoln County to issue a stop-work order for the new Jack Daniel's barrel house in an order dated February 23. On Thursday, the county complied, according to Shawn Henry, the outside counsel hired by Lincoln County.
"Any building proposed for construction — including the one that just got stopped — must now go before the planning commission for site-plan review and approval," Henry told Insider.
The ruling, obtained by Insider, came amid a heated debate between locals and Lincoln County officials about the role of the Jack Daniel's barrel houses in the community. Residents who live nearby have complained about the fungus covering homes, cars, street signs, and other outdoor surfaces.
Cox wrote in his order that Lincoln County did not properly enforce its zoning laws when it came to the Jack Daniel's facilities and that a stop-work order on the barrel house under construction must be implemented until a planning commission granted approval.
It was a victory for Christi Long, the local who filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging that Jack Daniel's parent company, Brown-Forman Corp., had illegally constructed six barrel houses in the area since 2018. Her lawsuit alleged that Lincoln County "failed to take appropriate action to halt the illegal construction."
The filing, which was reviewed by Insider, said none of the six completed barrel houses in Lincoln County received building permits. Insider previously reported that the liquor company was on track to have 20 barrel houses in Lincoln County overall.
Jason Holleman, Long's attorney, told Insider on Thursday he's satisfied with the court's decision to address the under-construction barrel house. But he said he hoped Lincoln County would go even further and take action against the existing barrel houses and the 14 planned ones.
"My clients, and other people I've heard from in the related community, continue to feel strongly that this issue has to be addressed," Holleman said. "What's happened this week with the court ruling is a first step towards that. But it is certainly not the last step."
The Longs' home and the wedding venue they own lie adjacent to several Jack Daniel's barrel houses and have rapidly accumulated the black fungus in the years since the whiskey company has ramped up its number of storage facilities in Lincoln County.
The fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis, grows on outdoor surfaces exposed to ethanol vapor.
Long's husband, Patrick Long, told Insider the existence of the fungus in the area meant that he had to spend roughly $10,000 a year power-washing his house with a mixture of water and bleach.
"I'm extremely concerned. My wife has breathing problems. One of the neighbors got cancer," he told Insider.
Long said his community's main demands were an air-filtration system that could block the ethanol emissions, which would stunt the spread of the fungus, and an environmental-impact study, which would look into how much ethanol was coming from the barrel houses and whether it's harmful to the residents.
Jack Daniel's did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson for the liquor company previously told Insider that it "complies with all local, state, and federal regulations regarding the design, construction, and permitting of our barrel houses."