Local produce processors have weeks to accept penalty
The brass at Natural Selections Foods LLC, which distributes the
popular organic food brand Earthbound Farms, has until June 1 to
decide whether to accept a $95,000 penalty for state water code
violations or to challenge the complaint.
Local produce processors have weeks to accept penalty
The brass at Natural Selections Foods LLC, which distributes the popular organic food brand Earthbound Farms, has until June 1 to decide whether to accept a $95,000 penalty for state water code violations or to challenge the complaint.
The charges against the company go back to 2004, though more recent charges were filed in late fall 2006 when the E. coli outbreak prompted the Regional Water Quality Control Board to do a spot inspection of the San Juan Valley facility.
“We do routine inspections of all wastewater facilities we regulate,” said Matt Thompson, a staff member with the enforcement unit of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. “When Natural Selections Foods had their spinach E. coli problem, it made us realize we hadn’t inspected in a while.”
The board is charging Natural Selections with five violations of the water code that have a maximum penalty of $6.2 million, though Thompson explained that many factors were used in deciding on the much lower penalty for the facility.
“Although the maximum penalty was very high, we thought considering the nature of the violations that the lesser penalty amount was sufficient,” Thompson said. “We believe the degree [of negligence] was low – this wasn’t like industrial waste water. It was basically vegetable wastewater.”
One of the charges against the company is that they released nearly three times the wastewater they were permitted to discharge every day during processing season, according to company documents turned over the water quality board. The season ran from March through December. Excessive wastewater led to chlorinated run-off ending up in a local creek.
In addition, Natural Selections had a permit to discharge processed wastewater through irrigation pipes to only 36-acres of row crops, but the company routinely discharged across 78 acres of crops.
The additional acreage that the company has been using to spray wastewater abuts with San Juan Creek, a tributary of the San Benito River, which eventually flows to the Monterey Bay via the Pajaro River.
“You need to obtain a permit that will specify how much you can discharge,” Thompson said. “It’s based on how much area [a company has], engineering factors …”
Natural Selections received their permit in 1999 to discharge up to 70,000 gallons per day of treated wastewater, but had been releasing an average of 274,000 gallons per day between June and October 2006.
One factor the investigators took into account when setting the penalty is that the chlorinated water that ran into San Juan Creek went into the creek in October during warm. dry weather.
“It is likely some of the residual chlorine volatized before it reached the creek,” according to the civil complaint from the water board. The degree of toxicity of the spills was considered a medium toxicity.
Though company representatives did not return calls by deadline, the civil complaint sent to Andrew Goodman, the founder of Earthbound Farms, explained the company’s statement about the violation of excess wastewater flow.
“The permitted flow volumes have been exceeded due to rapid growth in the company’s food packaging business over the last few years,” the document read. Joe Torquato, a facility engineer for NSF and a compliance consultant from Bracewell Engineering, signed the document.
The company moved to a 25,000 square-foot facility in San Juan Bautista in 1999, but had grown to a 200,000-plus facility by 2004, according to their Web site.
“They need to come back into compliance,” Thompson said. “They are talking about buying more land so they can spread out.”
The document also stated that as the company had filed a notice of intent to enroll under the General Waste Discharge Requirements for a new permit, they did realize that the old permit was still in effect.
Since the water board started their investigation in late fall, the staff at Natural Selections Foods has been readily working with the water board staff to correct the wastewater issues, Thompson said.
“There seemed to be a miscommunication,” Thompson said. “They had a change in staffing and didn’t realize they didn’t have the proper permits, but now that they do, they are correcting the problem.”
Though the company still has a few weeks to decide if they will contest the penalty, one option they do have is to pay half the penalty – or $47,500 – and use the rest of the money for a supplemental environmental project.
“They are talking about giving the money to the city of San Juan Bautista to produce recycled water,” Thompson said. “It’s something we do to keep the money in the watershed. The alternative is that they pay the [full] penalty and it goes into an account in Sacramento.”
Natural Selections Foods staff has until June 1 to waive their right to a public hearing and pay the penalty. If they opt not to, a hearing will be held at the Central Coast Water Board meeting July 6.
