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House of Raeford Farms has been charged with repeatedly violating the federal Clean Water Act after authorities accused the company of illegally discharging wastewater from a turkey processing plant.
The indictment contends the N.C.-based company sent untreated wastewater - contaminated with blood and body parts from slaughtered turkeys - to a municipal treatment plant in Raeford, N.C., on 14 occasions from 2005 to August 2006.
Municipal plants are designed to treat household waste, not raw industrial waste. For that reason, most industries are required to pretreat their wastewater before piping it to a municipal plant for final treatment.
The federal indictment, issued in Greensboro on Monday, also charges Gregory Steenblock, manager of the company's Raeford plant.
The company issued a statement Monday night contending it is innocent of the charges. In September 2006, it said, it completed a $1.4 million pretreatment facility, which worked as designed.
"We look forward to a full and fair hearing of the facts," the company said.
Its actions took place while it was under a consent order that required it to stop sending untreated waste to the municipal plant, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
If convicted, the company faces a maximum fine of $500,000 per count. Steenblock faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count.
In 2004, House of Raeford fines accounted for roughly 90 percent of industrial sewer fines levied in Raeford, according to the Associated Press. The city of Raeford fined the company more than $230,000 for waste violations between March 2002 and June 2005.
The Raeford facility processes more than 30,000 turkeys and generates about 1 million gallons of wastewater each day, according to the Justice Department.
House of Raeford is one of the nation's leading chicken and turkey producers.
Last month, company subsidiary Columbia Farms agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine and change its hiring practices in a deal that will allow it to avoid a criminal conviction on federal immigration charges. The company had been charged with knowingly hiring illegal immigrants after a raid at its Greenville, S.C., plant last year.
A 2008 Observer investigation found the company had masked the extent of workplace injuries. Employees told the newspaper the company had ignored, intimidated and fired workers who were hurt on the job.
House of Raeford officials said they followed the law. Staff Writer Bruce Henderson and researcher Maria David contributed.
