Clean Water Act – Civil Enforcement in Action
On Wednesday, January 10, 2007, the United States Department of Justice announced that M.G. Waldbaum Company, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Michael Foods Inc., had agreed to pay a $1.05 million penalty to resolve allegations that the company violated the Clean Water Act. Today’s settlement, which is a joint federal-state effort, involves a large egg processing facility and seven associated poultry farms near the City of Wakefield, Neb. The civil penalty is to be divided equally between the state and the federal government.
The Clean Water Act violations concerned allegations of overloading the wastewater treatment lagoons at the City of Wakefield’s publicly owned treatment works; discharging pollutants from a large pile of poultry waste into Logan Creek without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit at its Husker Pride poultry concentrated animal feeding operation; and improperly dumping process sludge waste from its egg processing facility at two of its other poultry farms rather than spreading on the ground in accordance with state standards.
As part of the settlement, Waldbaum also agreed to apply for a NPDES permit for its Husker Pride poultry farm CAFO and to develop and implement manure management plans at its other six poultry farms.
Concurrent with this settlement, a Clean Water Act settlement with the City of Wakefield, Nebraska is being filed for numerous NPDES permit violations at its POTW (many due to overloading of its lagoons by effluent from Waldbaum’s egg processing facility). Under the agreement, the City of Wakefield will pay a civil penalty of $20,000.00, comply with the Clean Water Act and its NPDES permit, prohibit POTW treatment of wastewater from Waldbaum, and conduct increased influent and effluent monitoring and reporting.
Copies of both consent decrees are available on the Justice Department’s Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.
More later,
As always, feel free to call me or e-mail me with any questions at walter.james@jamespllc.com.
WDJiii