Environmental Law

Another Chicken Shit Case ? or a Turkey of a Case?

By Walter James

Possibly not.

On November 30, 2009, a federal grand jury in Greensboro, North Carolina returned an indictment charging House of Raeford Farms Inc. and its plant manager, Gregory Steenblock, with multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for illegally discharging wastewater from its Raeford, NC, based facility.  Both charged with fourteen (14) counts of violating the CWA.  The facility is a turkey slaughter and processing plant. 

The indictment alleges that between January 2005 and August 2006, House of Raeford and Steenblock allowed plant employees to bypass the facility?s pretreatment system and send its untreated wastewater (i.e. waste from processing operations, including blood and body parts from the slaughtered turkeys) directly to the Raeford POTW without notifying city officials.  The bypasses and failure to report were in violation of the pretreatment permit and the city?s sewer use ordinance. 

If convicted, the company faces a maximum fine of $500,000.00 or twice the gain or loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greater, per count.  Steenblock faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000.00 fine, per count.

More later.

As always, feel free to contact me via e-mail at walter.james@jamespllc.com.

Full post as published by Environmental Crimes Blog on December 01, 2009 (boomark / email).