Ralph Moorefield lives in a pretty brick house in Harmony that befits the town's name. But he complains that a stench from a nearby poultry plant makes it hard to breathe.
Ralph Moorefield lives in a pretty brick house in Harmony that befits the town's name. But he complains that a stench from a nearby poultry plant makes it hard to breathe.
Had Moorefield, 64, known that easterly winds brought foul odors from the Tyson Foods Inc. plant just miles away, he says he wouldn't have built his house on Harmony Highway 12 years ago. Over the past four years, the smell has gotten stronger, he says. Moorefield has called state regulators about a dozen times and filed an odor violation complaint last year.
The Tyson plant received the largest air quality fine in the past year among companies in counties surrounding Mecklenburg. And only three fines inside Mecklenburg topped it last year. The Observer found in a review of N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources air quality records that the poultry giant was fined in November for nine air quality violations at the Harmony plant amounting to $10,341. The company says it has poured millions into improvements aimed at fixing the problems.
Each week, the Tyson plant processes about seven million pounds of animal waste parts for pet food and three million pounds of feathers for cow feed and fish food, state records show. The plant employs more than 120 workers.
"The smell is unbearable," said Moorefield, on the porch of his house, which overlooks north Iredell meadows where cows graze beside the occasional wild turkey. "It ain't right for them to make money and stink up the whole neighborhood."
Moorefield is one of several residents who speak of a strong smell resembling sewage that blows into their homes. The complaints illustrate the consequences of growth -- because of residential development, people now have to live near plants that were originally built in the middle of nowhere, as the Tyson plant was when it first opened in 1945.
Some relief may be on the way. By June 1, the plant plans to cut down on the weekly volume of product handled by the plant by 1 million pounds of offal, or 14.3 percent, and 500,000 pounds of feathers, or 16.7 percent, of current production. Company spokesman Gary Mickelson said the plant is adjusting production "to enhance operational efficiency." This should help reduce odors, he said.
Last year wasn't the first time Tyson faced fines. Since 2000, the N.C. division of air quality has fined Tyson $29,085 in civil penalties. The company has been cited for offenses ranging from odor violations to record keeping and reporting violations. Tyson's 2004 fine is more than three times bigger than last year's average fine of $2,690 for all N.C. companies monitored by the N.C. Division of Air Quality, said its public information officer, Tom Mather.
How heavily individuals or companies are fined depends on how serious violations are, their history of violations and how long the problem has been going on. Under N.C. law, the air quality division can fine a maximum of $10,000 per violation per day.
Mather said Tyson's fines are pretty typical of a company with an air quality permit, which is a state permit granted to companies that generate air pollution. About half the agency's fines are for outdoor burning, where individuals or contractors burn fires in the open, and those violations run from $500 to $1,000, Mather said.
In 2001, Carolina Byproducts, a rendering plant in Gaston County, ran up penalties of $97,111 for air quality violations. The case is in the appeal process, Mather said.
Odor violations are the toughest to regulate because there isn't a quantitative way to measure them, Mather said. Usually, if neighbors complain, his department sends inspectors to check whether companies are following regulations stipulated on their permit. In Tyson's case, the company is required to unload raw material from its trucks within 24 hours of arrival. It was fined for not unloading four out of 1,000 trucks within the time limit from September 2003 to May 2004.
"Usually with this type of facility, you'll never get rid of the odor completely," Mather said. He advises companies to minimize odors by taking actions such as unloading raw parts on time.
On a recent afternoon, the plant's open wastewater lagoon emitted a smell of rotten eggs. Across the dirt road, an odor of oily cooking drifted from the plant, where computer-controlled dryers cook chicken viscera and feathers. The rendering plant runs six days a week and is staffed on all days. One day is used for maintenance.
History of criticism
Tyson is headquartered in Springdale, Ark., and is the world's largest meat processor. It made $26.4 billion in revenue last year, up from $24.5 billion in 2003.Tyson has a history of facing criticism from environmentalists at its plants around the country. The company has paid millions in fines and settlements from water pollution violations to the U.S. and Missouri governments in 2003.
The company was one of several poultry companies to settle a lawsuit with the city of Tulsa, Okla. in 2004. The company also recently paid Iowa State University researchers $500,000 to study ammonia emissions at two Kentucky plants, as well as an undisclosed amount to three residents, who complained that air quality problems made them sick.
Mickelson, the company spokesman, said environmental stewardship is one of Tyson's core values. The company has a corporate environmental health and safety staff of 100 people and other support staff, who conduct environmental audits of the company's operations on a regular basis, he said. "We strive to manage all of our operations in an environmentally responsible manner, with emphasis on pollution prevention, conservation, recycling and operational efficiency," Mickelson said in an e-mail.
Tyson has been trying to reduce odors from its Harmony plant by installing new, more efficient dryers and more scrubbers to cleanse the air released by the facility, said Mickelson. The company has also added four employees to make sure raw material trailers are unloaded "in a timely fashion." "We take the notices from the state very seriously and we work very aggressively to address them and correct problems cited by the state," said Mickelson. "We've spent literally millions of dollars on improvements in our facility."
The Tyson plant was also fined $585 in August 2003 for discharging too much waste into its wastewater treatment plant, according to N.C. division of water quality records.
Mickelson wouldn't discuss the violation. But he said the company has made $1.6 million in improvements in its Harmony plant over the past couple of years and is planning another improvement project for this year.
State documents showed that the company is also monitoring workers for exposure to hydrogen sulphide because of exposure problems at another plant. Mickelson wouldn't identify the plant. Hydrogen sulphide is a colorless, potentially fatal gas that smells of rotten eggs and can trigger asthma attacks and irritate eyes and throats miles from its source. Its odor can cause nausea.
There are typically only occasional "low levels" of the gas at the site and the company monitors its levels in accordance with guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mickelson said.
Environmental advocate Lou Zeller of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League said Tyson's record of violations seemed "particularly egregious," after reviewing the state records at the Observer's request. Companies typically receive several warnings letters before the state issues notices of violations.
The state's system for monitoring odor violations is faulty because it depends on companies to report their own air quality levels, Zeller said. The state doesn't conduct random tests of companies, and responds only to complaints of odors and discrepancies in company filings. "If a vigilant inspector and the citizen's reporting process hadn't reported it, the company wouldn't have brought it up," said Zeller.
Anita Williams, who lives down the road from Moorefield, used to take day trips to get away from the smell. It gets worse in the summer, she said, and at its strongest, it makes her sick.
"Sometimes, you have to hold your breath, you can't get away from it," said Williams, who has lived there for six years. "I can't afford to move. We shouldn't have to move."
Wanda Case, who lives a few miles away from Moorefield, said the smell gets particularly bad on Sunday mornings. Case, who has lived there for six years, also complained of truck spills, which leave feathers, guts and heads on the nearby roads.
"You live in the country and expect to get country smells," said Case. "It'll burn your eyes, it gets that intense."
COMPONENTS OF TYSON'S FINE:
-- For not unloading raw material into storage within 24 hours of arrival four times: $4,500
-- For submitting inaccurate quarterly reports four times from October 2003 to July 2004: $3,500
-- For an odor violation documented on August 6, 2004: $2,000
-- For investigation costs: $341
-- Total fine: $10,341
Source: N.C. Division of Air Quality
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