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10/10/2025
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtga.us
Oct 10, 2025 237 pm EDT
CrimeBox
Clean Water Act Conviction Fiscal Year 2013; Case ID# CR_2466 (N. Carolina)
Poultry processor violates a Consent Order, continues to discharge blood, grease and turkey parts to the local wastewater treatment plant
The defendant in this case operates a poultry processing facility in Raeford, NC. The Hoke County facility receives truckloads of live turkeys to a kill floor, processes and packages turkey meat products to be shipped out to market. The facility operates with a discharge permit which specifies the condition and characteristics of wastewater effluent acceptable for discharge to the Raeford wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
In the course of a day at the defendant's facility, both solid and liquid biohazardous waste materials are generated. The facility and processing equipment must be meticulously cleaned between rounds of processing, as required to meet food safety standards. As such, the process water generated in the cleaning process contains biological waste materials combined with cleaning chemicals. Raw process water is not compliant with the facility's discharge permit, which specifies the liquid waste must go through a pre-treatment process to remove contaminants prior to discharge.
The defendant had previously been to court, facing environmental compliance enforcement by State environmental authorities. Through the formal enforcement action, the defendant agreed to upgrade the facility pre-treatment system. A Consent Order allows the parties to avoid going to trial. It is a formal agreement, approved and signed by a judge, enforceable by the court in much the same way as other court orders. In spite of this formal enforcement action, the defendant continued to allow employees to run the pre-treatment system beyond capacity, and continued to discharge inadequately treated wastewater to the Raeford WWTP, without notifying city officials.
According to the official Department of Justice press statement of Feb 26, 2013, the defendant was under the Consent Order, well aware of the illegal discharge issue impacting Rockfish Creek in Hoke County. "The untreated wastewater discharged directly to the city plant was contaminated with waste from processing operations, including blood, grease, and body parts from the slaughtered turkeys." A former employee of the defendant disclosed, "the facility would continue to 'kill turkeys' despite being warned that the unauthorized bypasses had an adverse impact on the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant."
The defendant plead guilty to ten felony charges, knowing violation of the Clean Water Act. The sentencing involved a federal fine of $15,000 per charge, two years probation and a special assessment fee.
Federal Fine: $150,000; Probation: 24 months; Special Assessment: $4,000
See last SDWA Legal, "President of trucking company moves to hide an oil spill. Two years later, a criminal record, federal fine and $680,000 clean up cost ", here.
CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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