Tyson Foods and Missouri reached a settlement over a fish kill in the southwestern part of the state, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Tuesday.
In total, Tyson will pay nearly $540,000 for an incident in May that killed about 100,000 fish near Monett, Mo.
"Tyson's actions threatened the vitality of Clear Creek," Koster said in a news release. "While Tyson has taken steps to prevent similar environmental damage to the creek in the future, the penalties contained in this agreement hold the company accountable for the damage that occurred."
Koster had sued the company in June.
It's the second-largest environmental penalty Tyson has paid since 2009. The largest fine occurred in 2013 when 23 facilities were collectively fined $3.95 million after anhydrous ammonia was released in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska, resulting in property damage, multiple injuries and one death, according to a news release from the Environmental Protection Agency.
From June 2009 to June 2014, the company was fined about $4.2 million for environmental violations in total, according to an analysis of EPA data.
The incident in Missouri began May 16 when Tyson's Monett plant received wastewater containing Alimet, a highly acidic feed supplement, from Tyson's Aurora facility for pretreatment, according to a report from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. A leak at the Aurora plant caused 40,164 pounds of the chemical to seep into a backup containment system.
When a truck transporting some of that wastewater pulled into the Monett plant, the driver said the material was "animal fat" sent for pretreatment, according to the report. The pretreatment operator then started pumping the wastewater into the system but noticed the material was not animal fat and diverted the remaining wastewater to an empty basin within 10 minutes of pumping.
The captured wastewater was treated for acidity and discharged to the city's wastewater-treatment plant from May 20-23. The wastewater that had not been diverted was not treated for acidity before flowing to the wastewater plant.
Skip Schaller, general manager of utilities for Monett, said in June that bacteria at the plant that neutralize ammonia died as a result of the wastewater's acidity. The treatment plant then exceeded the maximum amount of ammonia it was allowed to dump from May 19-29, according to the report.
That caused fish to die between Monett and nearby Pierce City along a 4-mile stretch of Clear Creek.
"We deeply regret the incident," said Worth Sparkman, a spokesman for Tyson, in a statement. "We've worked diligently and cooperatively with state and other authorities to make things right, including entering into a settlement agreement with the state."
Under the terms of the settlement, Tyson will pay Missouri $162,898 for natural resource damages, according to a news release. In addition, Tyson will pay $110,000 in civil penalties and will reimburse the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Missouri Department of Conservation more than $47,000 for expenses related to the spill.
Tyson also will replace a bridge over Clear Creek that acts as a barrier to fish and will donate $10,000 to the James River Basin Partnership. If the cost of the bridge is less than $210,000, Tyson will donate additional funds up to that amount to the partnership.
The agreement outlines additional obligations of Tyson, including preparation of a hazardous-waste manifest before transporting any hazardous waste in Missouri.
Koster said the company has taken steps to ensure the mistake does not occur again, including providing additional training to employees and a conference for managers from every Tyson plant in Missouri to review environmental matters.
"Tyson Foods' core values include serving as stewards of the environment -- in Missouri and every community where we operate -- and we take that obligation seriously," Sparkman said.
Business on 01/21/2015