November, 15 2017, 03:15pm EDT
Environmental Groups Reach Major Clean Water Settlement With Pilgrim's Pride
Second-largest chicken producer to pay $1.43 million in penalties, reduce pollution into Florida river.
Jacksonville, FL
Environment America announced today the filing of a proposed consent decree in federal court to settle a lawsuit against Pilgrim's Pride Corporation for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act at the company's poultry processing plant in Live Oak, Florida.
If approved by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan, the settlement would require Pilgrim's Pride to make equipment upgrades, investigate the possibility of eliminating or significantly reducing all discharges to the Suwannee River, and pay what is believed to be the largest Clean Water Act penalty in a citizen enforcement suit in Florida history. More than $1 million of the Pilgrim's penalty would fund a program to help nearby farmers reduce their pollution as well.
"This Pilgrim's settlement gives the Suwannee River a lot to be thankful for," said John Rumpler, clean water program director for Environment America. "At least for this one river, the world's second-largest chicken company is moving from being part of the pollution problem to part of the solution."
Pilgrim's Pride is the second-largest chicken producer in the world. Over three-quarters of its stock is controlled by JBS USA, a unit of the Brazilian meat processing company JBS SA, the largest meat company in the world by sales.
The groups filed the lawsuit earlier this year to stop Pilgrim's Pride from discharging illegal levels of pollutants into the Suwannee River, an "Outstanding Florida Water" that is home to 62 freshwater springs and several state parks. The complaint alleges that the company violated standards for:
- nitrogen, which can cause excessive algae growth;
- "specific conductance," which can indicate high levels of chloride, nitrate or sulfate;
- "biological oxygen demand," which can suck up the oxygen needed by aquatic organisms;
- "whole effluent chronic toxicity," which is an indication that wastewater is toxic to, and can harm, aquatic life.
"Today's settlement is a major step towards restoring the health of one of Florida's most beautiful rivers," said Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Organizing Representative for the local Sierra Club chapter. "Not only will the settlement directly address illegal pollution from the Live Oak plant, but the significant penalty payment should deter other polluters in Florida from breaking our fundamental environmental laws."
Filed in court today, the settlement terms would require Pilgrim's Pride to:
- Conduct a comprehensive study on eliminating the plant's wastewater discharge to the Suwannee River;
- Conduct a toxicity identification evaluation to address the cause of the plant's toxicity violations;
- Conduct a water use and reuse study, an analysis of the plant's water supply system, and various upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant; and
- Pay $1.43 million, of which $1.3 million would be used to create a Sustainable Farming Fund designed to improve soil, groundwater, and surface water quality in the Suwannee Basin, and $130,000 would be paid to the U.S. Treasury as a civil penalty.
"Our state officials were not doing enough to protect one of Florida's most important rivers so we stepped in as citizen enforcers of the Clean Water Act," said Jennifer Rubiello, State Director of Environment Florida, a state affiliate of Environment America. "This great outcome demonstrates the importance of citizen lawsuits."
Today's settlement is part of Environment America's effort to reduce the massive toll that corporate agribusiness is imposing on America's rivers and streams. As documented by Environment America in a report last summer, large agribusiness companies are major sources of water pollution - both at their processing plants and through the grain and livestock production in their supply chains. Environment America hopes that the Sustainable Farming Fund in today's proposed settlement can be a small first step in reducing the industry's water pollution footprint.
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation has operations in 14 states, Mexico, and Puerto Rico and is a supplier to KFC, Wal-Mart, Publix, and Wendy's. The company generated a revenue of $7.9 billion in 2016. The Live Oak facility processes live poultry into fresh and frozen chicken meat products, and operates a broiler hatchery to produce chicks for distribution to growers.
Environment Florida and the Sierra Club were represented by Heather Govern of the Boston-based National Environmental Law Center, which represents citizen groups across the country in suits to enforce the nation's environmental laws, and by Newton, Massachusetts-based attorney David A. Nicholas and Jacksonville, Florida attorney Andrew Bonderud.
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
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Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences and Issues 39 Pardons—But Leaves 40 People on Death Row
"State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to save lives," Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said earlier this week.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
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Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
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Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who voted against the NDAA, directed attention to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), set to be run by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
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"At a time when Hamas is feeling isolated due to the cease-fire in Lebanon, the draft resolution on a cease-fire in Gaza risks sending a dangerous message to Hamas that there's no need to negotiate or release the hostages," Robert Wood, the United States' deputy U.N. ambassador, said ahead of Wednesday's vote.
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In a separate vote Wednesday, 159 UNGA members voted in favor of a resolution affirming the body's "full support" for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. UNRWA has been the target of diplomatic and financial attacks by Israel and its backers—who have baselessly accused the lifesaving organization of being a terrorist group—and literal attacks by Israeli forces, who have killed more than 250 of the agency's personnel.
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toldThe Associated Press.
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, at least 162,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's bombardment, invasion, and siege of the coastal enclave, according to officials there. More than 2 million others have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened by Israel's onslaught.
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