ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A Maryland judge has sided with environmental groups and ordered state regulators to tighten up pollution limits on an Eastern Shore poultry rendering plant with a history of violations.
Dorchester County Circuit Court Judge William H. Jones directed the Maryland Department of the Environment to take back the discharge permit it issued to Valley Proteins in 2023 and impose more stringent requirements on the facility to safeguard water quality in the Transquaking River, a tributary of the Nanticoke River.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, ShoreRivers, Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, Friends of the Nanticoke River and Wicomico Environmental Trust had jointly filed a lawsuit in February 2023 asking the court to review the permit MDE had issued a month earlier.
The five-year permit allows a nearly fourfold increase in the amount of wastewater the Valley Proteins plant in Linkwood could release into the Transquaking. Its discharge could grow from 150,000 gallons per day, on average, up to 575,000 gallons per day if the plant first meets some requirements, including raising levels of fish-sustaining dissolved oxygen in its effluent.
An MDE spokesman said at the time that the permit requires “substantial reductions” in pollution levels in the plant’s discharge. In court filings, the agency also noted that the permit complies with a total maximum daily load (TMDL), or “pollution diet,” set 24 years ago for the river.
Like many streams and rivers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Transquaking suffers from excessive nutrient levels, mainly from runoff or seepage from farmland. The rendering plant’s discharge flows downstream into a dammed stretch of the river known as Higgins Millpond, where the environmental groups say the plant’s effluent can linger for up to nine days. Fish kills and harmful algal blooms have occurred there, and a sign warns residents not to touch the water.
In their lawsuit, the groups contended that MDE based its decision on a flawed analysis of the Transquaking watershed and failed to comply with federal and state law by not requiring more stringent pollution limits on the plant’s discharge. They argued that MDE is required to set discharge limits that ensure the pond and river are safe for swimming, fishing and wildlife. And despite the 2000 pollution diet, they said, the river has continued to show signs of decline, including algae blooms and high bacteria levels.
MDE cited a lack of data about conditions in the Transquaking but defended its decision by saying that its computer modeling indicates the mill pond would be impaired even if the rendering plant wasn’t there.
Jones chided MDE’s stance, saying that “since the inception of the Transquaking TMDL, the department has both acknowledged the ever-deteriorating water quality of Higgins Millpond and used its discretion to postpone further assessment of Higgins Millpond.”
He found that the permit limitations on the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus are not sufficient to meet water quality standards, as required by law. Indeed, citing data on discharges from 2007 through 2020, he said that the new permit would actually allow increases.
The judge, though, rejected environmentalists’ objections to the timetable MDE gave Valley Proteins for upgrading its treatment plant and meeting permit limits. He also brushed aside their contention that the permit should regulate offsite transport of semi-solid poultry offal, a byproduct of the rendering process.
A law passed this year does impose some regulation on the transportation and land application of industrial sludge, particularly the “dissolved air flotation material” that is generated and exported from Valley Proteins’ poultry rendering processes. The sludge is applied to farm fields as fertilizer but has generated odor complaints.
Notwithstanding, the Bay Foundation hailed the judge’s ruling as a “huge win for clean water” and the health of the Bay’s tributaries.
Likewise, Fred Pomeroy, president of Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, said that “we look forward to a new era of improving water quality on the river.” His group’s members have been testing water downstream from Valley Proteins for a decade and demanding stricter pollution limits.
MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said state regulators are reviewing the judge’s opinion “and will respond appropriately.”
Jillian Fleming, spokesperson for Darling Ingredients Inc., the Texas-based company that owns Valley Proteins, issued a brief statement that seemed to imply it might appeal the ruling.
“We will respond through the appropriate legal channels,” she said.
Neighbors and environmental groups have long complained about discharges from the Valley Proteins facility, which takes up to 4 million pounds of chicken entrails and feathers daily from poultry processing plants and renders them into pet food.
In September 2022, the company settled a lawsuit with MDE and ShoreRivers, the Bay Foundation and the Dorchester citizens group over a series of violations of the plant’s prior permit, which had expired in 2006. The company agreed to pay $540,000 in civil penalties to the state and $135,000 to the nonprofit groups for ongoing water quality monitoring and restoration work. The consent decree also required Valley Proteins to investigate potential groundwater pollution at the site and make improvements to its facility.
Earlier this year, though, MDE levied a $15,000 penalty on Darling after state inspectors tallied 51 violations of the terms of the 2022 consent decree. The company has contested the fine.