A public notice was recently issued to notify the public of significant industrial pollution violations by Perdue Farms, Inc., located at 2725 Highway 9 West, Dillon.
The notice lists “significant industrial wastewater discharge violations of 40 CFR Part 403 (General Pretreatment Regulations) occurring during calendar year 2015.”
Under violations, it states that Perdue met Chronic Criteria for Significant Noncompliance (SNC) for;
-pH for January -December 2015
-Ammmonia (NH3) July-December 2015 (violations occurred July, August, and September 2015).
Other significant violations include:
-Not resampling and reporting results within 30 days when Ammonia analysis results were over permit limit for July 7, 2015, August 20, 2015, August 28, 2015, September 1, 2015 and September 8, 2015.
-Not resampling and reporting results within 30 days when Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) was over permit limit on December 24,2015
-Not resampling and reporting results when Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was over permit limit on September 8, 2015, September 17, 2015, October 29, 2015 and December 22. 2015.
-Reporting violations: wastewater flow with incorrect Lab ID # (January-December, 2015), pH with incorrect Lab ID# (January-December 20 15), No. Ex Section (indicates number of violations) incorrect (January-December, 20 15), Analysis frequency section incorrect (January-December 20 15), Oil & Grease values reported without < sign (April 14, 20 1 5, July 1, 2015, October 22, 201 5, December 3, 2015, December 17, 2015, December 29, 2015), report value incorrect for Oil & Grease monthly average (January 2015), ammonia values on certificate of analysis logged incorrectly on daily spreadsheet (May 7, 2015 and September 22, 2015), incorrect monthly average reported for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) for June 2015, reporting flagged Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) for August 20, 2015, certificate of analysis results(BOD, TSS, NH3, COD and Oil & Grease logged for incorrect date on daily spreadsheet for July 30, 2015, September 17, 2015 and December 22, 2015.
-Monitoring violations: Ammonia was not analyzed along with all other parameters for July 30, 2015, analysis frequency for ammonia, BOD. TSS, COD, Oil & Grease were not analyzed 1/week for April 2015, May 2015, October 2015, and operating without an operator of appropriate grade for 2nd shift.
The actions listed in the notice included those shown below.
Enforcement actions included notice of violation and notice of significant noncompliance.
-Perdue Farms, Inc. found the source of the Ammonia problem by lowering the level of wastewater in the #2 Equalization tank which, in turn, has had a biological reduction in ammonia.
- Perdue Farms. Inc, was not aware of pH certification requirements until the pretreatment
-Program was implemented. A certified lab has been contracted analyze pH until Perdue Farms, lnc. can obtain pH certification.
-Perdue Farms incorporated has issued a response indicating they will notify the City of Dillon by email within 24 hours of being notified that a violation has occurred, and they will resample for any violations and report the results to the City of Dillon within 30 days.
-Perdue Farms, Inc, has corrected all reporting violations for January-December 20 15 by correcting all Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMR's) for January -December 2015.
-Perdue Farms, Inc. intended for Ammonia to be analyzed along with all other parameters for July 30, 2015, but it was inadvertently left off the chain of custody.
-Perdue Farms. Inc. is currently sampling 01/07 for all parameters that must be sampled.
-1st shift and 3rd shift “C” Physical Chemical Pretreatment Operators are covering 2nd shift with the Physical Chemical Pretreatment Trainee.
