06/17/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
Montgomery County, PA – JBS Souderton, a beef-processing plant located in Souderton, PA, reached a settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office Wednesday, June 16, 2010, over a lawsuit based on the company’s six-year history of pollution, as reported by The Philadelphia Enquirer.
According to federal and state authorities, JBS Souderton violated the Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law when it released animal waste, E. coli, ammonia, oil and grease into Skippack Creek. The creek is a tributary of the Perkiomen Creek and the Schuylkill. The creek is also part of a watershed that approximately 1.7 million people rely for drinking water, according to William Early, regional counsel for the EPA.
JBS Souderton processes almost 300 million pounds of boxed beef and ground beef a year. Wastewater from the plant is supposed to be conveyed into an onsite water-treatment-plant to be treated and then discharged into the creek. For the past several years though, excessive contaminants have been released into the water due to operational mishaps.
The plant’s pollution resulted in several fish-kills in the creek between August 2007 and June 2008. According to authorities, approximately 25,000 fish were killed from the pollution.
Federal officials filed a complaint against the company in December 2008, claiming that it had been operating illegally since 2003. The state Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Boat Commission finally joined efforts to stop the pollution this month.
Since the complaint grew, JBS Souderton began to cooperate and seek solutions to its pollution issues.
The settlement requires JBS Souderton to help find a solution to the environmental problem. The facility is to implement new systems of environmental protection; install a computer-based monitoring system for its equipment, leaks and water flow; and incorporate an asset-management and preventative-maintenance program to evaluate and maintain equipment.
The company will pay $1.9 million in civil penalties, to be divided between the federal government and the Pennsylvania DEP. It will also pay $100,000 in civil damages to the state’s Fish and Boat Commission.
JBS Souderton will build a $6 million wastewater treatment plant to help monitor the quality of water that is released at its facility. Construction should be completed by early July.
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