The trust of the local communities where we live and work is extremely important to Mountaire Farms. It is something we do not take lightly. We want to express our sincere apologies to our neighbors for the anxiety created by the wastewater situation at our facility in Millsboro, and assure people in our local community that we are committed to allocating the necessary resources to fix this problem in both the short and long term. We will make this right.
In late August, Mountaire Farms discovered a serious upset in its wastewater treatment facility. We immediately initiated corrective actions and contacted the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). These corrective actions continue to this day.
We instituted a two-phase plan for addressing the wastewater issue. We are currently in Phase One of that plan which involves fixes to the immediate issues that caused the upset, such as removal of solids and increasing oxygen supply. Additionally, Mountaire has increased the frequency of analysis of our wastewater processing systems and has added outside professional staffing to help expedite the process. We also submit status reports to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) on a bi-weekly basis.
Phase Two of the corrective action plan involves the complete upgrade of the wastewater treatment system at the Millsboro facility. Mountaire Farms has hired one of the top poultry wastewater engineers in the country to design a state-of-the-art treatment system. Once complete, this wastewater treatment system will be one of the largest and most effective systems in the State of Delaware. The total cost is estimated to be over $35 million for both phases.
Many of our neighbors have expressed concern over elevated levels of nitrates in their drinking water. In fact, high levels of nitrates in shallow groundwater is a condition that is widespread throughout Sussex County and has existed for many years, and we are confident that our recent wastewater treatment system upset is not a significant source of these elevated levels.
Nevertheless, we have offered bottled water service and filtration service to each of the 88 homes south and west of the plant, and we are going door to door to communicate this and the company’s efforts to restore the system to proper operation. We are now also offering to drill new wells with the appropriate filtration systems (or potentially a public water supply option) for our neighbors on each of these properties, regardless of the level of nitrates on the property (to date, most wells tested have been below the 10 mg/l threshold and require no treatment). The new wells will be much deeper than most wells in the area, at a depth not typically affected by nitrates commonly found in shallow groundwater.
At Mountaire Farms, we provide jobs for over 5,000 people in our Delaware operations, and our operations help sustain thousands of related jobs and hundreds of jobs for growers and farmers throughout Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. We consider ourselves a loyal member of the Millsboro and Sussex County communities.
Since we purchased the Townsend facility in 2000, Mountaire has enjoyed the respect and trust of its friends and neighbors in Millsboro. It is our firm commitment to do everything necessary to keep that trust and continue being a valuable neighbor for many years to come.
Michael W. Tirrell , executive vice president, processing Operations Mountaire Farms Inc.
