Efficiency, sustainability key for Pilgrim’s Sanford

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.’s Sanford, North Carolina, wastewater treatment plant is using unique processes to go above and beyond its treatment duties.

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The Sanford wastewater operation is flanked by a dense natural area that acts as a natural buffer for odors. (Courtesy Paul Bredwell)
The Sanford wastewater operation is flanked by a dense natural area that acts as a natural buffer for odors. (Courtesy Paul Bredwell)

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.’s Sanford, North Carolina, wastewater treatment plant is using unique processes to go above and beyond its treatment duties.

Due to its outstanding performance and organizational dedication toward sustainability, the facility was selected as the winner of the 2019 U.S. Poultry & Egg Association’s Clean Water Award for the full treatment category.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. is the second-largest integrated poultry producer in the U.S., according to WATT PoultryUSA’s Top Broiler Company rankings. The Sanford complex is one of 25 slaughter plants it operates in the U.S.

Water treatment

The Sanford facility processes approximately 132,000 birds per day and generates an average wastewater flow of 1.2 million gallons per day. Its wastewater operations include a water plant, a wastewater treatment plant, an irrigation holding pond for the land application system (LAS) and the LAS located on a nearby field. Wastewater is treated through a full, activated sludge treatment system with a denitrification system.

The judging committee was impressed with the duties the environmental staff handles. They include: drawing and treating potable surface water for use in the plant, managing offal screening and recovery, operating the LAS and even coordinating the landscaping crews around the plant grounds.

The facility is unique in its treatment because it uses a second dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit to treat wastewater effluent from its anaerobic basin. This reduces the amount of bio-solids entering the activated biological treatment system.

Moreover, in 2017 the facility included a $5 million suite of improvements to its wastewater operations that included addition of an anoxic tank, sludge tank, a belt press and DAF restoration. These upgraded systems boost the operation’s efficiency in removing nitrogen from the wastewater.

The Sanford operation also conducts extensive, laboratory testing of its influent and effluent at each unit of its operation to better understand what is happening in each unit of the operation. Its crew also found a method to detect the presence of peracetic acid, a potentially harmful chemical for this method of wastewater treatment, and can effectively manage its presence in the system.

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From left: Brian Paulsen, Steven Evans, Tina Pedley, Joel Mclaurin and Don Kidney, Pilgrim’s Pride, pose on a dissolved air flotation unit at the Sanford, North Carolina, facility. (Courtesy Paul Bredwell)

Environmental sustainability

The Sanford facility earned recognition for its water reuse programs and its commitment to protecting the environment near the facility about an hour’s drive outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.

The plant employs an extensive water reuse system. It recycles treated wastewater and sends it back into the plant for non-contact applications such as use in vacuum pumps, offal screen sprays, refrigeration system cooling towers, condenser towers and compressor cooling. All told, about 400,000 gallons of water is reused daily.

The grounds, and the 129-acre LAS area, are located next to a designated, natural wetland area that drains into the nearby Deep River. The plant takes care that its operations do not disturb the area and actually act as a habitat for wildlife. The LAS and its accompanying lagoon serve as a home and foraging area for wildlife like deer, turkeys, waterfowl and bald eagles. Woods surrounding this LAS and wetland area even serve as a natural vegetative environmental buffer to minimize the spread of odors beyond the plant.

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