Mountaire Farms has taken immediate action and will continue to take steps to correct issues with its wastewater treatment system at its poultry processing facility in Millsboro, Delaware, a company spokesman said.
Mountaire, the seventh largest broiler company in the United States, was recently advised by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) that it has violated the conditions of its permits to treat and spray irrigate reclaimed wastewater onto nearby agricultural farmland. DNREC notified the company that earlier in 2017 it had exceeded allowable levels of nitrates, fecal coliform and chlorine.
According to DNREC, Mountaire is permitted to treat and spray irrigate the treated wastewater into 13 spray zones on farmland near Millsboro that involve about 542 acres.
Facility has history of water issues
Mountaire purchased the Millsboro facility from Townsends Inc. in 2000, said Sean McKeon, Mountaire’s director of communication and community relations. At that time, there were existing wastewater issues, he said.
Mountaire worked closely with DNREC following the purchase of the facility to identify the areas that had some groundwater issues or potential groundwater issues. The company agreed to supply bottled water and/or water filtration systems to the eight homes within the area near the spray zone that could be affected. Those homes were on private water well systems. While one of those properties no longer has anybody living there, the company continues to provide water for the remaining seven, McKeon said.
The company has worked hard to be in compliance with water-related permits since acquiring the facility, but it found out that some of those efforts had lapsed in recent months.
Employees responsible for violations were terminated
McKeon said people responsible for monitoring the wastewater system, allowed solids to build up in the wastewater and allowed water to be released without proper levels of oxygen in the system.
That lack of attention to detail “exacerbated problems we have been dealing with for years,” McKeon said.
“We had several employees here who were not doing their jobs. They were responsible for operating our wastewater treatment systems and they did not do their jobs properly,” he said. “They were dismissed from the company. They do not work with us any longer.”
Investing in two-phase plan to correct wastewater problems
Mountaire is presently working with DNREC to assure that the wastewater quality problems are no longer problems. The company has committed to a two-phase plan to improve the situation.
The first phase of the plan is to increase the oxygen levels, increase the biosolid removals and increase its water analysis at the Millsboro facility. The phase also includes increased and different staffing, said McKeon.
That phase will take about six months to complete, according to McKeon.
The second phase, involves a complete upgrade of the wastewater treatment system at the Millsboro facility.
“We have hired one of the top poultry wastewater design engineers in the country to do that. It will be state of the art, and when it’s done it will probably be the largest and most effective system in the state,” said McKeon. “It will be far superior to the old one.”
The company’s investment in the two phases, combined, is expected to be between $30 and $35 million.
“We’re doing everything we have been asked to do and more. For our neighbors, we pride ourselves in being a very good corporate citizen,” said McKeon. “We’ve committed to them that we will allocate whatever resources are necessary to fully complete our corrective actions and upgrades in the short term and the long term.”
