Washington - Poultry giant Tyson Foods will pay $6 million to settle charges that farm run-off polluted Maryland waters with dangerous agricultural waste byproducts, federal prosecutors said on Friday.
Animal waste from huge, so-called factory farms has become a high priority issue for the U.S. Agriculture Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and a host of state regulators concerned about the impact on water and health.
Under the settlement in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Tyson will pay a $4 million civil penalty and spend another $2 million to stop waste from its farms and processing plants from leaking into waterways in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
“This settlement illustrates the Administration's resolve to protect critical water bodies in Maryland and across the nation,” Steve Herman, Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in a statement.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Hudson Foods, a Tyson subsidiary, claiming its Berlin, Maryland, operation discharged fecal coliform bacteria, phosphorous, nitrogen and ammonia into a river that flowed into a nearby creek and the Newport and Chincoteague bays.
The lawsuit also said Hudson violated pollution monitoring procedures.
Tyson, the largest U.S. chicken processor, acquired Hudson in September. Tyson said the lawsuit alleges violations from 1993 to early 1997, well before it acquired Hudson.
“Tyson Foods, Inc. will be pleased to have this matter settled and is now operating this facility in the same exemplary manner as it does all of its wastewater treatment facilities around the country,” the Arkansas-based company said in a statement.
Scientists say agricultural run-off can pose serious health risks to people and to fish.
Contact with fecal coliform can cause intestinal, skin, ear and eye infections, while high phosphorous and nitrogen levels can lead to a boom in algae growth that reduces crab and fish populations. Ammonia is toxic to fish, the government said.
A Justice Department spokesman said no illnesses had been directly attributed to the Hudson case.
Run-off from farms and other agricultural operations has received a large amount of attention from environmentalists, farmers and companies in the past year.
Last summer a microbe linked to agricultural run-off, Pfiesteria piscicida, killed millions of fish in three Chesapeake rivers in Maryland and Virginia and made people sick. The outbreak cost the region's seafood industry $43 million in lost sales.
Scientists blamed the outbreak on a buildup of phosphorus and nitrogen from local poultry farms. Now officials say they worry that more run-off from El Nino-induced heavy rains, along with the return of warmer weather, have set the stage for a repeat of last year's problems this summer.
The U.S. Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have been working to develop a strategy to curb farm run-off and water pollution linked to agricultural operations.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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