THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9510310107
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
By the end of 1996, all waste from Smithfield, including that produced by its two mammoth meat-packing plants, is scheduled to be pumped into Hampton Roads Sanitation District wastewater treatment lines instead of the Pagan River.
That should be welcome news to Smithfield residents as well as to Smithfield Foods Inc., which has been cited repeatedly by a state agency for exceeding pollution limits and has raised some people's eyebrows by donating $100,000 to help Republicans gain a legislative majority in next week's elections.
HRSD General Manager Jim Borberg says the regional wastewater treatment facility will begin accepting in January about half of the 2.5 million to 3 million gallons of wastewater produced daily by Smithfield Foods Inc. The town is due to hook in with the HRSD lines at the same time, he said.
The two packing plants are scheduled to begin discharging the remainder of their wastewater to the regional treatment facility by next fall, Borberg said. The nine-month wait stems from work Smithfield Foods is having done at its own treatment plants so the company can pre-treat its waste for phosphorous.
``The quality of the Pagan River will be improved by the elimination of those flows,'' Borberg said.
The chemically treated wastewater that Smithfield Foods and the town discharge into the Pagan doesn't necessarily make the river water unsafe for swimming and fishing, says Patti Jackson, executive director of the James River Foundation.
``I certainly wouldn't advise swimming or consuming the waters near where the discharge is hitting the river,'' she said.
Smithfield does not get its drinking water from the Pagan River or any of its tributaries.
Smithfield Foods, the town's largest employer, has been cited for 24 alleged violations of state water quality regulations over the past 18 months.
According to Department of Environmental Quality records, the violations are based on excessive discharge of nitrogen, fecal coliform - bacteria that indicate the presence of manure - oil and grease into the Pagan.
The river has been closed to shell fishing for several years because of pollution.
For years, Smithfield Foods has been discharging its wastewater into the Pagan River, which feeds into the James River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay.
But before the discharge leaves the two packing plants, it goes through two treatment facilities designed to meet state guidelines set by the DEQ, said David Gusman, senior enforcement specialist who handles the DEQ's water pollution cases in Hampton Roads.
The company is required to test and treat the discharge for high acidity, phosphorous and oil and grease levels, Gusman said. It also has to measure and chemically treat high levels of organic material, including blood and human and animal waste, in the discharge.
The state has not fined Smithfield Foods for any of its most recent violations, Gusman said.
And that is part of the problem, says Jackson, of the James River Foundation. The Richmond-based environmental organization has about 1,500 members, mostly people who live and work along the James River watershed, Jackson said.
``The state will reduce a fine until it's just a slap on the hand . . . and let a plant continue operating while adjustments are made,'' Jackson said. ``There are a lot of problems with enforcement.
``The state government has a predisposition to work with industries to solve problems rather than to lose the economic base that would result from shutting them down.''
Over the past 15 years, Smithfield Foods has faced a long line of environmental citations, although they had tapered off until 1994, when the latest string of state citations began.
``It's unfortunate, but when you look at the history of Smithfield Foods, they haven't been very good about complying with environmental standards,'' Jackson said. ``To me, the bigger issue is what was happening before these violations were identified.
``But once they hook up to the HRSD's plan, that will certainly improve the quality of the Pagan River.''
Phone calls from The Citizen to Smithfield Foods for comment had not been returned by press time. by CNB