The United States Of India's largest chicken producers is penalised with $205 million due to the disposal of wastewater and sludge from its Delaware plant that polluted nearby waterways, private water wells, and the surrounding air.
The company will deposit $65 million into a fund for residents whose properties were affected by the company's plant at Sussex county. The amount is a part of the class-action settlement of the company with Mountaire Corp.
Mountaire will even pay $140 million to upgrade its treatment system as per a separate action lawsuit. The company faces two separate lawsuits, one filed in Delaware Superior Court on behalf of residents and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) filed another civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court.
One of the residents said that settlement is the best possible outcome as he and his wife were hospitalised in 2017 because of gastrointestinal issues. The couple is still suffering from the painful conditions caused due to the contamination.
Mountaire Farms plant is located along Swan Creek and the Indian River in Millsboro, Delaware where the company slaughters and processes about two million chickens a week. The company treats two million gallons of water in a day by spraying it across 13 fields and sending it to a lined lagoon instead of discharging it into waterways.
As per an investigation by the state, the company applied two million gallons of sludge to fields without submitting required documents to DNREC, which eventually resulted in nitrate contamination of the groundwater. This resulted in most of the wells were tested for excess nitrates.
A spokesperson for DNREC stated that Mountaire is already working on a major upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant.
