Posted April 13, 2015
An
environmental group is threatening to sue Bartels Packing, a Lane County
slaughterhouse and meat packaging firm, for multiple violations of the federal
Clean Water Act, according to a Register Guard article available here.
The Eugene Weekly also published an article available here
and Corvallis Gazette-Times here.
Portland-based
Willamette Riverkeeper says it sent the lawsuit warning notice to Bartels
Packing.
The notice
lists four violations documented by the state Department of Environmental
Quality from 2010 to 2014. Each claims that wastewater or blood waste entered
waterways near Fern Ridge Lake. The lake discharges into the Willamette River.
According
to a European Commission survey of wastes spread on land, blood applied to land
can improve levels of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. But if the percentage
of blood in the wastewater is too high, then those nutrients in excess or in
waterways can affect the water and fish. The survey says if the blood waste is
not incorporated into the land as soon as possible, it can lead to nuisance
odors, according to Eugene
Weekly.
Kandi
Bartels, executive vice president of Bartels, said the company will address the
notice with Willamette Riverkeeper, according to Register
Guard.
“They’ll
learn the truth and hopefully will understand where we’re coming from,” she
said.
But
Bartels also said the notice is the latest in a “stampede” of what she later
called “character assassinations” against the company. “We take no malice
against them, but we have a business to run,” Bartels said. “We take these
issues seriously.”
Bartels
sells meat as Bartels Farms. It is one of only two U.S. Department of
Agriculture-inspected slaughterhouses in Lane County. The other is Mohawk
Valley Meats in Springfield.
Riverkeeper
says in its letter that it will file suit in 60 days unless Bartels addresses
the CWA violations, seek injunctive relief (a court order to stop activities)
and “$37,500 in civil penalties for each day of violation,” according to Eugene
Weekly.
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit
the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
