Tag Archives: Environment Florida

Pilgrim’s Pride to pay $1.43 million Suwannee River pollution to settle lawsuit by Environment Florida and Sierra Club 2017-11-14

Despite what we heard at the BMAP meeting Tuesday, it turns out Best Management Practices (BMP) are not all that can be done to fix fertilizer nitrate runoff in the Suwannee Rier Basin. “More than $1 million of the Pilgrim’s penalty would fund a program to help nearby farmers reduce their pollution as well.” The Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDACS) could also ask the legislature for further such funding, in addition to recommending BMPs. Congratulations, Environment Florida and Sierra Club, for doing what the state of Florida has not!

Pilgrims Pride, US 90,
Photo: Dominic Gheesling for WWALS on Southwings flight 22 October 2016, Pilgrims Pride, US 90, 30.3648380, -83.1636130

Another chicken breeder is setting up in the Suwannee River Basin, near Quitman in Brooks County Georgia, next to Okapilco Creek, which flows into the Withlacoochee River and then the Suwannee River. We’ll be watching.

Drains south, Piscola Creek

  • Video by Environment Florida, starring Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson (Sierra Club), Jeniffer Rubiello (Environment Florida), and Heather Govern (attorney, National Environmental Law Center), and Whitey Markle (Suwannee-St Johns Group, Sierra Club Florida). Continue reading →

Video: Pilgrim’s Pride effluent pipe directly into Suwannee River

With the Suwannee River low, you can see the effluent coming out of the pipe west of Live Oak, FL. Pilgrim’s Pride just rejected a shareholder resolution to curb water pollution from its operations. And Aviagen is opening a chicken breeding operation in Brooks County, GA, in the watershed of the Withlacoochee River, upstream of the Suwannee.


Pilgrim's Pride, Proud to Dump into Suwannee River? from Merrillee on Vimeo.
“Pilgrim’s Pride discharges over 2 million gallons a day of liquid poultry wastes in the Suwannee River from a meat rendering facility located north of Live Oak, FL.”

Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Sierra Club for .this video, which she showed me, along with many pictures, when she was in Valdosta for the VDT interview with Randy Dowdy about Sabal Trail destroying his farmland.

I asked Merrillee whether Continue reading →

Legal filing about Pilgrim’s Pride effluent into Suwannee River

Environment Florida filed a lawsuit 9 March 2017 against Pilgrim’s Pride about “effluents” into the Suwannee River, alleging a violation of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit, which is also a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Case 3:17-cv-00272-TJC-JRK, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida Here is PDF of that legal complaint, sent to us by the plaintiff’s attorney.

Suwannee Riverkeeper is always glad to see legal action going on that we don’t have to do. Here are a few notes.

Pilgrim’s Pride goes to some trouble to treat and disinfect their wastewater at its plant on US 90 west of Live Oak in Suwannee County, and then:

  1. The wastewater discharged into the Suwannee River is also called the Plant’s “effluent.”
  2. Outfall D-001 is an 18-inch diameter steel pipe that extends approximately 20 feet from the shore and discharges into the Suwannee River.
  3. During the Suwannee River’s low flow periods, the pipe is not always completely submerged.
  4. During the Suwannee River’s low flow periods, the Plant’s effluent discharging from the pipe can be seen.

And the complaint alleges the effluent is not entirely clean.

What about the waste that is not liquid? Continue reading →