Washington - Tyson Food Inc. says it is no longer dumping liquid waste from a processing plant onto a cornfield near Maryland's Eastern Shore, The Washington Post reported.
The nation's largest poultry producer told the newspaper that it has stopped the practice, months after state authorities warned that the dumping violated Maryland's environmental laws.
Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said the sludge - waste water collected during the cleaning of slaughtered birds - is being kept in holding tanks at the processing plant. But the company hopes to convince state officials that the waste can be applied safely to the field. If that does not work, the company will ship the sludge to Virginia to be turned into animal feed, Nicholson told the paper.
The state's environmental secretary, Jane Nishida, said she was pleased by the announcement but that they still “need to address the outstanding violations.”
Maryland officials plan to meet with Tyson officials July 2 to discuss the disposal plans.
Some scientists believe waste runoff can give rise to a toxic microbe that causes lesions and sores on fish and can cause health problems in humans, including memory loss.
State officials have monitored the site since May, when Tyson agreed to pay the federal government $6 million to settle environmental violations there from 1993 to 1997, when Hudson Foods Inc. owned the plant.
Tyson, based in Springdale, Arkansas, acquired Hudson Foods last year.
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