A dark, foul-smelling liquid leak from a pet food plant has resulted in state enforcement action against the factory after months of investigation and a flurry of complaints about polluted streams in rural South Carolina
The state’s environmental agency fined SC Pet Food Solutions $20,000 over discharges that state inspectors say took off the property and into a small stream in Saluda County, according to an enforcement document released this week .
The stream is a tributary of larger creeks that state records show were contaminated with harmful bacteria last summer. A large creek downstream of the pet food plant – Mine Creek – was coated with pea green slime and carried an odor that neighbors said was nauseating. Before the scum formed, the water turned black, residents said.
Many people said they were concerned about the plant’s impact on the peaceful farming community before the plant opened about five years ago. Despite their reservations, state regulators approved the plant, saying it had proper pollution controls.
The SC Department of Health and Environmental Control did not respond to questions Friday from The State about any link between the pet food plant and pollution of major streams. But Mine Creek connects to another major stream, Dry Creek, which the enforcement order said received discharges from the pet food plant site.
The enforcement action said the company violated the state’s pollution control law when it allowed contaminated runoff to leave approved waste disposal sites.
SC Pet Food Solutions paid the fine, a DHEC spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for 3D Corporate Solutions, a partner in the pet food plant, declined comment. Efforts to reach Amick Farms, the other partner, were not immediately successful. Pet Food Solutions did not admit wrongdoing, but agreed to the enforcement action in an effort to resolve the issue with DHEC, records show.
An area resident whose father lives near Mine Creek said the issue is a test. But since the state inspected the area and began discussing the problem with Pet Foods Inc. in late summer, the sludge has disappeared from the creek, he said.
“As someone who lives downstream, I’m glad DHEC is taking this seriously enough to look into this,” said James Edwards, an area resident whose father’s home backs up to Mine Creek. Since DHEC took action, “I haven’t seen anything close to the pollution in the creek this summer,” he said.
The Pet Food Solutions plant, in the small Saluda County community of Ward, is a large factory that processes byproducts from poultry processing plants into protein food for pet food. Amick is a major chicken processor in South Carolina and 3D is a national pet food corporation.
DHEC’s action follows numerous inspections and field visits last year by agency staff in response to complaints about creek pollution.
The department’s enforcement order indicated that some of the creek’s pollution was related to wastewater treatment problems and discharges from the company’s waste disposal system. The agency said it found frothy, muddy wastewater, with large mats of black solids and “globular-like materials.” That indicated a problem with the treatment process, the department said.
Pet Foods Inc. said it experienced an excess of solid material in its waste stream after taking one of the treatment basins out of service, according to the DHEC order.
DHEC said some sprayfields where the wastewater was being spread were saturated when inspectors were on the scene last spring. The area where the wastewater was sprayed also had multiple discharge pipes from the ponds, the enforcement order said.
The idea of spraying wastewater on fields is to let the material soak into the ground, rather than pipe it into a river. But the system can fail when too much wastewater is sprayed or piped into the ground, which can cause it to run off property and into streams.
During the May 17 visit where the saturated fields and pipes were discovered, agency personnel found “multiple site discharges entering an unnamed tributary to Dry Creek,” the enforcement order said. “The discharge is dark in color and has an odor.”
In addition to the $20,000 fine, DHEC’s enforcement action requires the company to, among other things, submit a plan to correct the problems, remove any remaining discharge pipes tied to the waste ponds and evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment system.
