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Pittsburg, Texas is home to Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (Pilgrim), the fourth largest poultry producer in the country. The company produces and processes poultry meat and eggs on company and contract facilities and sparks controversy in East Texas over pollution and quality of life wherever it attempts to expand its operations.

By industry standards, Pilgrim is a very successful company. It maintains its own breeder farms, hatching facilities, feed mills, grow out farms, and slaughtering/processing plants. But in the course of its expansion, the company amassed a significant number of environmental violations dating back to at least 1976, when the state sued the town of Mt. Pleasant over the poorly treated sewage from the wastewater treatment plant operated by Pilgrim. (1)

The Mt. Pleasant wastewater treatment plant treats chicken wastes from the Pilgrim processing plant and discharges the treated wastewater into Tankersley Creek, which ultimately feeds into Lake O' The Pines, a popular fishing area. In 1976, the court ordered the town to never again violate the terms of its wastewater discharge permit. But by 1985, fish kills and repeated state pollution violations resulted in an EPA order to halt the pollution immediately. (2) "Fish kills and generally poor water quality have become a continual problem in the stream below Mt. Pleasant's Southwest STP [sewage treatment plant]," wrote one state investigator in 1985. (3) But just hours before the Texas Water Development Board gave up its enforcement powers to the newly created Texas Water Commission, the Board agreed to give Pilgrim more time to clean up the plant. Bo Pilgrim sat on the Water Development Board at the time of the decision. (4)

Despite the reprieve, the city again faced fines from EPA in 1987 and 1988 because of the Mt. Pleasant plant discharges. (5) The Texas Water Commission assessed penalties in 1988 and 1990. (6) Because of repeated violations by Pilgrim at the wastewater treatment plant, the city of Mt. Pleasant had the permit officially transferred to the company in the fall of 1988. (7) By the mid-1990s the facility regularly exceeded its permitted discharge limit, and in 1996 sought permission to solve the problem by increasing its permit limit by 25 percent despite the creek's significant degradation and the opposition of local residents. (8) But in 1999, EPA again filed an administrative complaint against Pilgrim for discharges from its processing plant into Tankersley Creek, especially ammonia-nitrogen discharges in excess of its permit limits. (9)

Regulators have also fined Pilgrim for illegally constructing and operating facilities without a permit, including confined animal areas. For example, in 1985, 1986 and 1990, Texas regulators cited Pilgrim for building and operating two feedmills without a permit and for expanding its egg layer operations (adding three new houses and approximately 336,000 birds) without notifying authorities. (10) As recently as last year, Pilgrim agreed to pay a fine of $31,250 for operating two caged layer operations and discharging into local waterways without a permit. (11)

Pilgrim's chicken houses generate an enormous amount of waste, and the company spreads the manure on surrounding lands as fertilizer. Over the years, the manure spreading operation has generated odor complaints from local residents. In 1987, the Texas Air Control Board fined Pilgrim for odors after Pilgrim began to spread manure on 120 acres north of Mt. Pleasant. The Air Control Board received complaints and a petition signed by 30 people protesting odors from the area. The investigation found that Pilgrim had spread wet manure without disking it into the soil. (12) One resident complaining of chicken waste odors in 1988 reported that he "fought the odor as long as he could," but then sold his property and livestock to Pilgrim and planned to move out. (13) The Air Control Board issued further agreed orders against Pilgrim in 1989, 1990 and 1991. (14) Finally, in 1995, TNRCC required Pilgrim to pay a fine of $325,000 for multiple violations including the spreading of chicken parts (beaks, feet, feathers, fat, etc.) on land as fertilizer which created nuisance odors in violation of the earlier agreed orders. (15)

Pilgrim is sometimes slow to comply with the directives of environmental regulators. In March 1994, the EPA issued an order against Pilgrim's Lufkin, Texas processing plant for discharging "a red liquid" (July 30, 1993) and for discharging into a manhole on the property that was connected to a nearby stream (October 25, 1993). The order also noted unauthorized discharges dating back to 1991. The company indicated that it had taken action to prevent further discharges. But, more than a year later EPA issued another administrative order against this facility. Follow-up site visits from June 1994 through January 1995 showed ongoing discharges from the facility to the manhole leading to a storm sewer and to a tributary of Cedar Creek. (16)

By 1995, East Texas residents began to weigh the potential economic advantages of an expanding Pilgrim's Pride against the potential air and water degradation, and they began to vote "No" to company proposals. When the Sulphur Springs Economic Development Board brokered a deal to bring a new Pilgrim plant to town, some 700 people turned out, most of them denouncing the company and the proposal. Turned down by Sulphur Springs, Pilgrims Pride shopped its new plant to a number of other East Texas cities. "They've tried to go a lot of places-New Boston, Longview, Kilgore," Senator Bill Ratliff told the Dallas Observer in 1996. "In my opinion what is happening is that people in Northeast Texas who have driven through Mt. Pleasant and smelled the plant wonder whether or not they want any of that in their community." (17)

Finally, Pilgrim returned to its home base in Camp County and applied to TNRCC to discharge wastewater into Big Cypress Creek. The company also tried to purchase the water supply it needed for its processing plant from the nearby Franklin County Water District. After hundreds of protestors again showed up to the water district meeting, the district board terminated the proposed water sale.(18) But the wastewater discharge permit hearings continued.

Pilgrim proposed to discharge wastewater into Big Cypress Creek, the major tributary to Lake O' The Pines. The City of Longview, which gets drinking water from Lake O' The Pines, protested along with the Northeast Texas Municipal Water district and residents of the surrounding properties. More than 500 people wrote to TNRCC to oppose the permit application and ask for a public hearing, (19) and a number of parties were allowed to contest the permit formally. By 1997, the wave of dissatisfaction with Pilgrim's expansion plans swept Jerry Boatner into the Mayor's office in Mt. Pleasant. "The damage done to an already loaded Cypress Creek is a matter of public record," he declared in an advertisement in the local paper. "Should Mr. Pilgrim expect to double his operations here while doing real harm to the environment, to the communities he wants to be supportive of him, and to his very best managers and employees at his home base?" (20)

Bo Pilgrim, a born-again Christian, responds that his critics don't understand him or his business. "Whatever people say negative about me and the company, that is their problem, not mine," he told the local magazine, Texas Lake Country, in 1999. "They did Jesus just the same way, and he said just dust off your feet and go on down the road." (21)

Although Bo Pilgrim predicted that he would have his permit by June 1996, (22) the protests ultimately derailed the plan. During legal procedures before the hearing, Pilgrim's representatives acknowledged that information provided in the application concerning pollutants was based on the numbers required to demonstrate compliance with the law, without any scientific basis to determine whether the numbers could be achieved at the proposed plant. Before the hearing, Pilgrim withdrew its application. (23)

But this did not stop the company from moving its proposed site across the highway and starting the process all over again, only this time it proposed to dispose of its waste using deep injection wells. Far fewer protestors were granted party status to contest the permit in a formal hearing. The company's new proposed site is located directly across Highway 271 from the previously proposed site, adjacent to Walker Creek and about 800 yards from Big Cypress Creek. Although the injection wells will be located near two creeks that feed Lake O' The Pines, the request for a contested case by the City of Longview was denied, as was the request by East Texans for a Better Tomorrow. (24) TNRCC required the three adjacent property owners to first mediate their concerns before getting a formal hearing on their case. (25)

Meanwhile, TNRCC appears to favor Pilgrim in their permit request. According to the Executive Director, " the current permit conditions meet TNRCC rules and requirements and are adequate to protect human health and the environment." (26) So, while the outcome of the dispute is still pending (the hearing will start in June 2000), there is a chance that the permit will be granted, allowing Bo Pilgrim's chicken empire to grow even bigger in East Texas.

NOTES:

1 Rich, Jan, "State squawks foul over fowl empire, pollution," Houston Chronicle, September 27, 1985, p. 1.

2 Ibid.

3 Memorandum to Dennis Palafox from Victor Palma, "Fish Kill in Tankersly Creek," May 23, 1985.

4 Rich, Houston Chronicle, September 27, 1985; Pasztor, David, "Bo? Hell No!" Dallas Observer, February 22, 1996, p. 21.

5 Jacobs, Janet, "Pilgrim's admits to water violations," Longview Journal, March 24, 1996.

6 Letter to Ms. Lola Barrett from Anthony Grigsby, Texas Water Commission, no date.

7 Jacobs, Longview Journal, March 24, 1996; City of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, Southwest Sewer Plant Operating and Permitting Agreement, May 4, 1988.

8 Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant, Notices of Noncompliance, July 1994 to December 1996; Letter to John Witherspoon, TNRCC, from Tim Weir, Pilgrim's Pride, RE: Annual Compliance Inspection, April 14, 1995; TNRCC Wastewater Site Assessment for Permit Action, April 10, 1996; Letter to TNRCC from Timothy Phy on behalf of the Lake O' The Pines Civic Association, August 15, 1996.

9 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, Proceedings to Assess a Civil Penalty under Sec. 309(g) of the Clean Water Act, Administrative Complaint, May 10, 1999.

10 Texas Air Control Board, Notice of Violation to Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, December 3, 1985, Account No. NA-0026-V, Permit No. 16722; Texas Air Control Board, Agreed Board Order No. 90-04(i), Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, May 18, 1990; Texas Air Control Board, Notice of Violation to Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, September 12, 1986, Account No. CE0012B; Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, Letter to Gary Wallin, Permits Section, Texas Air Control Board, September 22, 1986 (received).

11 TNRCC, Agreed Order assessing administrative penalties and requiring actions, July 26, 1999.

12 Texas Air Control Board, Board Order No. 87-09(t), November 13, 1987; Texas Air Control Board Interoffice Memo from Richard Leard to James Myers, Formal Enforcement Conference with Pilgrims Pride Corporation, August 7, 1987; Letter to Mr. Burgess, TACB, from Mrs. Marie Stephens, July 25, 1987.

13 Complaint investigation form, March 10, 1988.

14 Executive Director's Response to Public Comment on the Draft Waste Disposal Well Permit, Appendix I "Summary of Pilgrim's Pride Compliance History."

15 TNRCC, Agreed Order Assessing Administrative Penalties and Requiring Certain Actions of Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, Randee Corporation, Winston Land and Cattle Company, and John R. Winston Jr. under the Authority of the Texas Water Code, Chapters 5 and 26, and the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapters 361 and 382, Docket No. 94-0378-IWD-E, July 27, 1995 (received).

16 US EPA, Region 6, Water Management Division, "Notice of Proposed Administrative Penalty Assessment," Docket No. VI-94-1621, NPDES Facility No. TXU000211, August 12, 1994; U.S. EPA, Region 6, Water Management Division, "Administrative Order," Docket No. VI-95-1023, NPDES Facility No. TXU000211, May 23, 1995.

17 Pasztor, David, "Bo? Hell No!" Dallas Observer, February 22, 1996.

18 Ibid.

19 Jacobs, Janet, "Hearing planned Monday on Pilgrim's water permit application," Longview News, March 24, 1996.

20 Copy of advertisement, Mt. Pleasant Daily Tribune, February 23, 1997, supplied to Consumers Union by Mr. Jerry Boatner.

21 "Bo Pilgrim: Christian Businessman," Texas Lake Country (Spring/Summer 1999), p. 11.

22 Jacobs, Longview News, March 24, 1996.

23 The City of Longview's Reply to Responses from Pilgrim's Pride Corporation and the Executive Director Concerning the City of Longview's Request for Contested Case Hearing, TNRCC Docket No. 1999-0421-UIC, April 23, 1999.

24 Letter to LaDonna Castanuela, Chief Clerk, TNRCC from Jim Mathews, City of Longview, March 5, 1999; D.W. Garrett for East Texans for a Better Tomorrow, Reply to Applicant's and Executive Director's Responses to Request for Contested Case Hearings, April 20, 1999; TNRCC Interim Order concerning the application by Pilgrim's Pride Corporation for six underground injection wells, May 12, 1999.

25 TNRCC Interim Order, May 12, 1999.

26 TNRCC, Executive Director's Response to Public Comment on the Draft Waste Disposal Well Permit Nos. WDW-352, WDW-353, WDW-354, WDW-355, WDW-356, and WDW-357, Docket No. 1999-0421-UIC.