North

Public comment period extended 30 days on Smithfield hog plant

DUBLIN -- The public comment period on a revised water quality permit under consideration for Smithfield Packing Co.'s hog slaughtering facility in Tar Heel has been extended 30 days until June 27.

Hearing officers agreed to extend the comment period in response to several requests made here Thursday night during a public hearing at Bladen County Community College. The comment period on the draft permit, which went to public notice Feb. 9, had been scheduled to close at the end of the hearing.

Following this additional comment period, the hearing officers will make a recommendation on whether to approve, modify or deny the permit. The director of the Division of Water Quality has 90 days from the comment closure deadline to make a determination.

About 800 people attended the Thursday night hearing. More than 375 written comments have already been submitted.

DWQ plans to issue the facility a revised National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit with several added conditions. Those conditions include the following:

  • Processing capacity at the plant would be limited to the current production rate of 144,000 hogs per week;
  • Carolina Food Processors would not be allowed to process hogs from any finishing operation in North Carolina that has received a violation notice from DWQ in the preceding 12 months, beginning on the permit issuance date;
  • The company could not process hogs from any new or expanded swine farms permitted during any legislatively mandated moratorium. North Carolina is currently under a moratorium, which Gov. Jim Hunt signed into law Aug. 27, 1997; and
  • Within 90 days of the permit issuance date, the Tar Heel facility would have to submit to DWQ a plan for optimizing efficiency of its wastewater treatment operations and maintenance.

    • Carolina Food Processors would be allowed to build additional wastewater treatment equipment to help recycle part of the waste stream for reuse in the plant, rather than discharge treated waste into the Cape Fear River.

    In January, Smithfield dropped its nearly 3-year request to increase slaughtering capacity from 24,000 to 32,000 hogs per day and to increase its discharge of treated wastewater into the Cape Fear River from 3 million to 4.5 million gallons per day.

    A copy of the draft permit and a sketch showing the discharge location are available by contacting Mark McIntire of the NPDES Unit, Division of Water Quality, P.O. Box 29535, Raleigh, NC 27626-0535; telephone, (919) 733-7015, extension 553. Copies are also available at the division's Fayetteville Regional Office in Suite 700 of the Wachovia Building, (910) 486-1541.

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    Date Posted: May 29


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