Maryland, Environmental Groups Sue Over Pollution From Eastern Shore Rendering Plant

Annapolis MD

07 February, 2022

12:01 PM

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By Timothy B. Wheeler, the Chesapeake Bay Journal Feb 4, 2022 Maryland and a coalition of environmental groups filed separate lawsuits Wednesday against a poultry rendering plant on the Eastern Shore, alleging dozens of water, air and hazardous waste violations in recent years. The lawsuits — one brought in state court by the Maryland Department of the Environment and Attorney General Brian Frosh and the other in federal court by the nonprofits ShoreRivers, Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation — charge the Linkwood, MD, facility owned by Valley Proteins Inc. with repeated and continuing violations of environmental laws and regulations. "The Valley Proteins facility's recent compliance record indicates a pattern of improper operations and poor decision-making that threatens our water and air quality," MDE Secretary Ben Grumbles said in a press release announcing the state's lawsuit. Over nearly 600 days from April 2019 through October 2021, Valley Proteins self-reported 40 violations of its wastewater discharge permit, the state case noted. MDE inspections from January 2019 through January 2022 found additional violations, including unauthorized discharges of wastewater, sludge and solids and failure to take steps to prevent polluted runoff. State inspectors also tallied dozens of air pollution violations caused by malfunctioning odor-control equipment. Neighbors and environmental groups have long complained about the Valley Proteins plant, which takes up to 4 million pounds of chicken entrails and feathers daily from poultry processing plants and renders them into pet food. Representatives of the three environmental groups said they were glad to see the state sue the Winchester, VA-based company but felt it necessary to go to court as well because it had taken the state so long to act. "It's been eight years for us that we've been trying to get MDE to actually do their job," said Fred Pomeroy, president of Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth. The plant, about five miles east of Cambridge, discharges into a tributary of the Transquaking River, which flows into Fishing Bay, an offshoot of the Chesapeake Bay. The Transquaking has been classified for more than two decades as impaired by nutrient pollution. The rendering plant is the river's largest single source of such pollution, which fuels algae blooms and reduces oxygen levels in the water below what's healthy for fish and other aquatic animals. "There's been egregious violations," Pomeroy said, "and the Transquaking has [borne] the brunt of some severe pollution." A Valley Proteins executive who has spoken previously about the plant did not return an email seeking comment. In April 2021, ShoreRivers, the Bay Foundation and the Dorchester citizens group notified Valley Proteins they intended to sue over pollution violations at the Linkwood plant, including repeatedly exceeding discharge limits on fecal coliform bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorus and ammonia. The MDE followed five months later with its own promise of legal action, saying it had continued to uncover violations at the plant, even as the agency unveiled a proposed new discharge permit for the operation, replacing one that had expired in 2006. Then, in late December, after drone images taken by ShoreRivers showed a discolored discharge coming from Valley Proteins' outfall, MDE inspectors found multiple new problems, including discharges of sludge and inadequately treated wastewater into a stream leading to the Transquaking, and leaks and overflows from treatment tanks. MDE then directed the company to cease operations at its Linkwood facility until it could meet its wastewater discharge limits and reduce the risk of overflows from its nearly full wastewater storage lagoons. The company was allowed to resume partial operations a couple days later after negotiating a consent order with MDE. That agreement required Valley Proteins to reduce the amount of wastewater stored in its lagoons and barred any discharges until the plant could consistently meet its wastewater treatment permit. The company has been trucking its wastewater to a municipal treatment plant in the nearby town of Hurlock. But an MDE inspection in mid-January found some of the rendering plant's wastewater was still leaking into the Transquaking tributary, in violation of that consent order. "I don't think there's any question that the situation is far from under control," said Matt Pluta, ShoreRivers director of riverkeeper programs. "We continue to see these violations." MDE Secretary Grumbles was criticized on Jan. 18 by some members of a state Senate committee, who questioned his agency's oversight and enforcement record in the case of Valley Proteins and several other recent incidents. Since then, the agency has filed a lawsuit against Baltimore city over a series of violations discovered after another group's tip about problems at one of the state's two largest municipal wastewater plants. Maryland's complaint against Valley Proteins, which was filed in Dorchester County Circuit Court, seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day for each alleged water pollution violation and up to $25,000 per day per alleged air violation. It also asks the court to order the company to cease all illegal discharges and conduct an engineering study to determine how to bring the plant into "permanent and consistent" compliance with its wastewater permit. "The complaint seeks to hold Valley Proteins accountable for the harm it has caused and to ensure that it does no further damage," Attorney General Frosh said in a statement announcing the legal action. The environmental groups' federal lawsuit, which alleges repeated and continuing violations by the plant, seeks even higher penalties. Under U.S. law, the alleged water pollution violations can bring fines of up to $59,973 per day, while the alleged sludge storage and handling violations can draw a maximum penalty of $81,450 per day. Any penalties assessed by the court or agreed to by the company would be paid to the government, not the environmental groups. What the groups most want from their litigations is "a seat at the table," said Jon Mueller, the Bay Foundation's vice president for litigation, when MDE regulators discuss an out-of-court settlement with the company to remedy the plant's problems. Darling Ingredients, a Texas-based international processor of farm and food waste, announced in late December it had reached an agreement to buy Valley Proteins and all its facilities nationwide for $1.1 billion. Pluta, of ShoreRivers, noted that a year ago, MDE was planning to provide Valley Proteins nearly $13 million in public funds to pay for upgrading the Linkwood plant's wastewater treatment system. Some lawmakers objected to giving state funds to a company with compliance problems, and the legislature cut the amount the company could get in half. MDE subsequently withdrew the offer entirely and vowed to take enforcement action after finding still more pollution violations there. That new permit is still pending. "We're just not confident that MDE is going to be strict enough," said Pomeroy of the Dorchester citizens group. "We certainly hope they are. This is a good first step, but there's a long way to go." The Chesapeake Bay Journal is a nonprofit news organization covering environmental issues in the Bay region. Sign up for a free subscription at BayJournal.com.