City of Wilson sues Nash County over poultry plant
Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 11/25/2010 - 1:39pm
Company's pollution in Texas used as a warning:
Using water discharge data supplied by the company to the Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit group Environment Texas reported a year ago that the chicken plant near Bryan, Texas, released about 1.2 million pounds of nitrate compounds into Cottonwood Branch creek in 2007.
The city of Wilson, which has sued Nash County over its approval of a rezoning that could allow the project, has alleged that the project is in its watershed.
This is not really a "chicken war", it's one of the battles in the "water war". And in the absence of leadership from above (the Legislature), we can expect to see more of these cross-county disputes.
“Sanderson Farms has a terrible track record here in Texas of polluting our waterways, and if they move into your neighborhood, I’d be concerned,” Metzger said.
In 2008, Sanderson Farms released more than 2 million pounds of nitrate compounds into Cottonwood Branch creek, which might have made it the top water polluter in the state, Metzger said. He said they have not done a formal analysis of the 2008 figures to determine if Sanderson Farms got the top ranking.
He said in Texas, most water permits are issued by the state.
“Over time, permits were supposed to be ratcheted down to zero (discharge),” he said. “They haven’t been ratcheted down. In some cases, (pollution discharges) were allowed to increase because business was a bigger priority for the state than protection of the environment.”
Sounds eerily familiar, doesn't it?
You may find this interesting
A relatively neutral assessment by RAFI on legal developments and trends which shift the responsibility for adverse environmental impacts associated with animal waste disposal toward the processors and away from farmers.