M.G. Waldbaum Company pays $1 Million penalty
M.G. Waldbaum Company, a subsidiary of Minnesota (US)-based Michael Foods Inc., has agreed to pay a $1.05 million penalty to resolve allegations that the company violated the Clean Water Act. The settlement, involves a large egg processing facility and seven associated poultry farms near the City of Wakefield, Nebraska ( US ). The civil penalty will be divided equally between the state and the federal government.
The Clean Water Act violations concern allegations of overloading the wastewater treatment lagoons at the City of Wakefield’s publicly owned treatment works (POTW); discharging pollutants from a large pile of poultry waste into Logan Creek without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit at its Husker Pride poultry concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) (one of Waldbaum’s seven poultry farms); and improperly dumping process sludge waste from its egg processing facility at two of its other poultry farms rather than spreading on the ground in accordance with state standards.
As part of this settlement, Waldbaum has committed to comply with a schedule in its current NPDES permit for construction of a wastewater treatment plant to treat the effluent from its egg processing facility. Construction of the new plant will be completed in 2009 at an estimated cost of $16 million.
“This settlement underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to enforce vigorously the nation’s laws that protect the public and the environment from pollution,” said Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “I am particularly pleased by the federal/state partnership that brought about this outstanding resolution of serious environmental violations.”
As part of the settlement, Waldbaum has also agreed to apply for a NPDES permit for its Husker Pride poultry farm CAFO and to develop and implement manure management plans at its other six poultry farms.
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