The Clean Water Act violations involve Waldbaum's egg processing facility and seven associated poultry farms near the city of Wakefield, Nebraska. The settlement, reached on Thursday, is a joint federal-state effort. The million dollar penalty will be divided equally between the state and the federal government.

The company is alleged to have overloaded the wastewater treatment lagoons at the city of Wakefield’s publicly owned treatment works. Charges also include allowing pollutants from a large pile of poultry waste to enter Logan Creek without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, NPDES, permit at its Husker Pride poultry concentrated animal feeding operation, CAFO, one of the seven Waldbaum poultry farms.

The company also allegedly dumped process sludge waste from its egg processing facility at two of its other poultry farms rather than spreading it on the ground in accordance with state standards.

As part of the settlement, Waldbaum has committed to comply with the schedule in its current NPDES permit for construction of a wastewater treatment plant to treat the effluent from its egg processing facility. Construction of the new plant is scheduled for completion in 2009 at an estimated cost of $16 million.

As part of the settlement, Waldbaum also has 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.

Source: ENS