Tyson blamed for fouled water in Missouri city

Plant’s chemical dumping cited in fish deaths, stench

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Brian Fanney- From left to right, Matthew Livingston, fisheries assistant, Dave Woods, fisheries management biologist, Zach Morris, resource aide, and Adam Boman, fisheries management biologist, sample fish at Pierce City Park in Pierce City, MO. The Missouri Department of Conservation workers were sent to the park after a Tyson facility in nearby Monett, MO. caused a fish kill in Clear Creek between the two cities.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Brian Fanney- From left to right, Matthew Livingston, fisheries assistant, Dave Woods, fisheries management biologist, Zach Morris, resource aide, and Adam Boman, fisheries management biologist, sample fish at Pierce City Park in Pierce City, MO. The Missouri Department of Conservation workers were sent to the park after a Tyson facility in nearby Monett, MO. caused a fish kill in Clear Creek between the two cities.

MONETT, Mo.-- A Tyson Foods facility in Monett, Mo., dumped a chemical compound into a stormwater treatment plant last month, destroying biological processes and causing a fish kill and repugnant smell throughout the area, according to a report from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The department issued Tyson and the city notices for violating Missouri's clean-water law. The incident is being referred for enforcement to the department's Water Pollution Control Branch in Jefferson City, the report stated.

"You know when you smell Tyson when you drive by and you know when you smell the sewer when you drive by, and it wasn't that," said Caleb Morris, who works down the street from the Tyson plant at Daylight Donuts, recalling the incident.

"It was different. Not good," he said. "I can't describe it to you."

On May 16, Tyson's Monett facility received wastewater containing Alimet, a highly acidic feed supplement, from the company's Aurora facility for pre-treatment. A leak at the Aurora facility caused 40,164 pounds of the chemical to seep into a backup containment system.

When a truck transporting some of that wastewater pulled into the Monett plant, the driver said the material was "animal fat" for pre-treatment, according to the report. The pre-treatment operator then started pumping the wastewater into the pre-treatment system, but noticed that the material was not animal fat and diverted the remaining wastewater to an empty basin within 10 minutes of pumping.

The captured wastewater was treated for acidity and discharged to the city's wastewater-treatment plant from May 20-23. The wastewater that had not been diverted was not treated for acidity before flowing to the plant.

Skip Schaller, general manager of utilities for Monett, said bacteria at the plant that neutralize ammonia died as a result of the wastewater's acidity. The treatment plant then exceeded the maximum amount of ammonia it was allowed to dump from May 19-29, according to the report.

That caused fish to die between Monett and nearby Pierce City along a 4-mile stretch of Clear Creek.

In Monett, a city of 8,900, the Tyson facility is a centerpiece. Worth Sparkman, a Tyson spokesman, said the facility employs almost 700 people and has an annual payroll of about $21.5 million

Many residents declined to be quoted because they have family and friends who work at the plant.

"Many of our team members and their families live in the community, so when it's affected, we're all affected," Sparkman said in a statement. "We have a long history of mutually productive cooperation with the city of Monett and we hope that will continue as we work through this process."

In Pierce City, Department of Conservation workers sampled fish Thursday in Pierce City Park. Tami Gripka, who lives nearby in Stark City and works for the school system, watched the workers and recalled what the stench had been like in the park.

"It smelled like rotting fish in still water, but I don't think it was the fish that we were smelling. It was a different kind of smell," she said. "We looked over the side of the bridge, and we saw all kinds of dead fish down there. We saw at least 10 or 12 dead fish."

"I think people have taken responsibility. Tyson is important to our community, too," she added. "They're good people, and they've been very supportive of the community. And jobs. Jobs are huge."

But others at the park took a tougher stance.

"It needs to be more than a slap on the wrist," said a person who did not want to be identified. "It ran right through our towns and parks."

Business on 06/14/2014

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