GREELEY, Colo., June 16 (UPI) -- Swift Beef Co. will pay $1.3 million to settle violations of the federal Clean Water Act and state law at its processing plant in Nebraska, officials said.
The agreement to pay the penalty is in addition to the company having spent more than $1 million at its Grand Island, Neb., facility to implement measures to reduce pollutants in its wastewater as required by its discharge permits, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday in a release.
"Swift will pay a significant penalty for its illegal discharges of wastewater that caused interference with the local water treatment system and damage to the aquatic ecosystem of the Wood and Platte rivers," said Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "The same industry that puts food on American dinner tables must also comply with the Clean Water Act that keeps our country's waterways healthy, safe and clean."
The federal complaint, which Nebraska joined as a co-plaintiff, charged that Greeley, Colo.-based Swift violated its permit many times between 2006 and 2011 by discharging pollutants exceeding the permitted limits, among other things. Some of the violations resulted in a 2008 fish kill in the Wood and Platte rivers in which an estimated 10,000 fish were killed, the complaint said.
The consent decree requires Swift to pay more than $1.3 million in civil penalties and damages to natural resources. Of the total, $1.2 million in a civil penalty for its Clean Water Act violations will be divided evenly between the U.S. government and Nebraska. Swift also will pay Nebraska $100,000 for violations of a state 2008 administrative order and will pay the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission $4,705 for resource damages to restock waters with fish and clams.
