State says no additional hogs or discharge at Smithfield's Tar Heel facility
RALEIGH -- Smithfield Packing Co.'s hog slaughtering facility in Tar Heel was today issued a revised water quality permit that caps production at its current level, limits discharges of treated wastewater and bars processing from farms that have been assessed penalties for serious violations.
Preston Howard, director of the Division of Water Quality, said the new permit is "one of the toughest and most comprehensive" ever issued in North Carolina.
"We looked at potential impacts to the environment, the pork industry and the state as a whole," said Howard. "Smithfield's compliance records, both here and out of state, were also considered. Bottom line -- no additional hogs will be allowed at the plant, wastewater discharges are to remain the same and growers who are found guilty of serious permit violations need to look elsewhere to sell their swine."
Under the permit, which becomes effective Nov. 1, Smithfield's Carolina Food Processors plant will not be able to process hogs from any finishing operation in North Carolina that has received a final penalty assessment for discharging animal waste to surface waters or wetlands, or where a grower has applied waste in excess of an approved application rate. A noncompliant grower would be under such prohibition for 12 months after the final penalty assessment.
DWQ will provide Smithfield a monthly list of these noncompliant swine farms. The company will develop and submit for approval a record-keeping system whereby DWQ can monitor compliance.
Other requirements of the revised National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit include the following:
Processing capacity at the plant will be limited to the current production rate of 144,000 hogs per week;
Discharge capacity for treated wastewater to the Cape Fear River remains at 3 million gallons per day;
Treatment efficiencies must exceed 99.5 percent for removal of oxygen consuming pollutants discharged into the Cape Fear, requirements which are significantly more restrictive than those for any other similar operation; and
Within 90 days of the permit issuance date, the Tar Heel facility must submit to DWQ a plan for optimizing efficiency of its wastewater treatment operations and maintenance.
Smithfield will 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 wastewater into the river.
"Millions of gallons will be recycled every year and that takes a lot of pressure off the ground water aquifer," Howard said. The recycling equipment will also help the company comply with its permit limits, he added.
Carolina Food Processors had originally sought to increase its daily discharge of treated wastewater to 4.5 million gallons. The company, which applied for the permit in February 1995, had requested the increased capacity to boost production from 24,000 to 32,000 hogs per day.
After lengthy discussions with DWQ, the company dropped both requests in January. Smithfield then agreed to ban processing from any operation in the state that had received a violation notice for any infraction from DWQ within the preceding 12 months retroactive to the permit issuance date, and not to buy hogs from any new or expanded swine farm permitted during any legislatively mandated moratorium.
A public notice was announced Feb. 9 on the proposed NPDES permit. DWQ received more than 375 written comments, the majority of which came from pork industry interests. The division held a May 28 public meeting in Dublin to explain the draft permit and to allow further comment. About 800 people attended the meeting at Bladen County Community College, 53 of whom spoke.
Due to substantial public interest, the hearing officers extended the comment period until June 27. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources conferred with the Attorney General's Office on permit specifications and conditions. Hearing officers reviewed the public comments and made a recommendation to DWQ on permit requirements. The division had until Sept. 27 to render a decision.
Howard said the hearing officers "did a good job modifying the special conditions contained in the draft permit to make them consistent with the findings set out in the Attorney General's opinion on our authorities to include such conditions in a NPDES permit."
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Date Posted: 09/23/98
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