Packing plant fined for water pollution

A central Minnesota meat packing plant was fined $52,000 for water-quality violations that included improper dumping of waste products and an unreported spill, according to a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency agreement announced this week. The agency said Long Prairie Packing Co. in Long Prairie improperly stockpiled industrial byproducts and applied them to land that was too close to surface water or farmed wetlands. The company also failed to promptly clean up blood-contaminated liquid that spilled out of a dumpster, the MPCA said. The company agreed to spend half the penalty, $26,000, on an anaerobic digester that will produce biofuel and reduce the amount of pollutants entering nearby water. Long Prairie Packing Co. was also fined $12,500 in 2007 for improperly stockpiling manure at several sites in Todd County and for failing to keep complete records. Some of the manure was stored on land that had steeper slopes than allowed, on land with the wrong kinds of soils or on land too close to ditches that drained into nearby wetlands. Read the current agreement here.