By Glenn Rolfe

MILLSBORO — The state has given Mountaire Farms of Delaware the green light to begin pollution-control improvements at its Millsboro processing plant, a multimillion project that could be partially operating by late 2022.

On Jan. 15, Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced that two permits have been issued to Mountaire Farms for facility upgrades that will allow the company to address regulatory compliance issues and wastewater violations that led to the September 2017 wastewater-treatment plant failure.

“This is welcome news, as we’ve been ready to start construction on this important project for months now,” said Mountaire Farms spokeswoman Catherine Bassett. “Our new state-of-the-art wastewater system at our Millsboro facility has been our focus for the past three years, and we’re ready to begin construction immediately.”

DNREC’s permit approval is hailed as a potentially positive step by the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, a grassroots organization that assists communities in protecting themselves from negative impacts cause by factory farms.

“Hopefully, it is going to mean that the folks are finally going to have clean air and clean water,” said Maria Payan of the environmental group. “It is going to take some time because there is construction and some other things that are involved with that.”

As part of a May 2020 agreement with DNREC, Mountaire is required to construct significant upgrades to its wastewater-treatment facility. In addition, DNREC has requested that the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware enter the agreement with a consent decree. The U.S. District Court’s decision is pending, according to DNREC.

Together, the permits authorize Mountaire to construct significant upgrades to its wastewater-treatment facility and to put improvements into operation when construction is complete.

“This is an opportunity for Mountaire to reset the clock and an opportunity for them to be a good corporate neighbor,” Ms. Payan said. “They have a community that is depending on them to be a good neighbor. But a permit is only as good as the enforcement on it, so I hope that finally the neighbors can get some relief.”

Ms. Bassett said Mountaire will invest more than $120 million on this project, which includes new technology remediation and environmental enhancements.

“We are scheduled to have portions of the new project operating by late 2022,” she added.

On Sept. 5, 2017, Mountaire reported to DNREC that its Millsboro wastewater-treatment facility was in failure due to a buildup of solids throughout the plant, as well as a depletion of oxygen in the plant’s aerobic operations, causing Mountaire’s wastewater to exceed the effluent limits of its spray permit.

Mountaire undertook interim action to reduce the solids from spray effluent and disinfect effluent prior to its application on the spray fields.

In November 2017, Mountaire submitted a corrective action workplan, setting forth interim measures and proposed long-term measures for permit compliance.

Also that month, DNREC issued a notice of violation, identifying a total of 17 categories of violations of Mountaire’s spray permit and land application permit.

Soon after, in December 2017, DNREC supplemented the NOV, requiring additional corrective actions by Mountaire. Subsequent interim measures by Mountaire resulted in significant improvements in the quality of the effluent from the plant.

In addition, a consent decree submitted through Delaware Superior Court required Mountaire Farms to pay a civil penalty of $600,000 and to reimburse DNREC $25,000 for expenses incurred during its investigation.

The consent decree also required Mountaire to implement a project that will reduce the penalty by 30% to $420,000 by offering an alternative water supply to nearby residents.

In 2018, Mountaire also was hit with two separate lawsuits, representing hundreds of area residents, over suspected groundwater contamination, including high nitrate levels.

Those lawsuits have been resolved over the past two years. On Dec. 18, 2020, Mountaire, in a joint statement regarding settlement of litigation, announced that the poultry company and a group of neighbors had reached a comprehensive class action settlement to resolve all remaining issues related to claims involving its Millsboro plant.

In 2019, Mountaire resolved all issues with a separate group of plaintiffs.
As part of the class action settlement agreement last month, Mountaire agreed to create a fund for those in the Millsboro vicinity who claim damages based on its wastewater-treatment and spray-irrigation activities. The settlement will resolve all outstanding class action claims for injuries, damages and nuisance. Details of the settlement are subject to approval by the Delaware Superior Court.

“Our sole focus now can be on building our new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment (facility), which has been our goal all along,” said Phillip Plylar, president of Mountaire, in the December release. “We are ready to move forward.”

Significant upgrades are tied to the on-site wastewater-treatment and disposal-construction permit issued by DNREC.

Among other improvements, the facility upgrades will provide enhanced capabilities, resulting in total nitrogen concentrations of 10 mg/L or less in treated effluent, which aligns with state and federal drinking water standards.

This highly treated effluent will then be spray-irrigated onto permitted agricultural fields, where additional nutrient reductions will occur through crop uptake.

DNREC’s second permit is a modification and renewal of Mountaire’s operations permit for on-site wastewater treatment and disposal, which authorizes spray irrigation of Mountaire’s treated wastewater on 893 acres of permitted fields in Sussex County.

The operations permit modification provides for more stringent effluent limitations and enhanced monitoring requirements and authorizes Mountaire to place facility upgrades into operation once construction is complete.

DNREC’s order and Mountaire permits can be found online.