MADIGAN: PROPOSED SETTLEMENT WITH McDONOUGH COUNTY SWINE OPERATION ADDRESSES ODOR AND INCINERTOR PROBLEMS

Chicago - Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced that owners of a McDonough County swine facility will pay a civil penalty and continue to bring operations into compliance with air and water pollution law as a resolution to a 2006 environmental lawsuit.

Under the terms of a proposed settlement that Madigan’s office filed with the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB), Pinnacle Genetics, LLC, of Camp Point, and Professional Swine Management, LLC, of Carthage, will pay a penalty of $27,000 to resolve livestock waste violations and other violations of the environmental laws alleged in an October 2006 complaint.

Pinnacle Genetics and Professional Swine Management jointly operate a 3,400-head production facility north of Colmar. This site includes an incinerator for dead swine, a truck wash facility and various manure handling structures in addition to offices and swine confinements buildings. 

“This proposed settlement will address several alleged shortcomings that had become nuisances to the neighbors of this operation,” Madigan said.

To date, Madigan said compliance activities undertaken by Pinnacle and Professional Swine Management include:

• The companies are no longer storing manure stacks along an access road and have installed a storage tank for liquid livestock waste designed for the truck wash with a capacity of 120 days.   Note:  In 2004, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) responded to a citizen complaint and collected samples of wastewater and manure from the truck wash which allegedly emptied into a drain and pipe leading to a channel that empties into a tributary of Troublesome Creek and onto a feedlot south of the truck wash.  The area has been reseeded to pasture.  

• The companies have eliminated all open burning and are properly discarding medical waste items and transporting them to a Carthage clinic for proper disposal.

• The companies are complying with IEPA annual reporting requirements.

• The companies have implemented corrective measures for the operation of the on-site incinerator including adding a concrete compost structure designed to reduce the amount of incineration done at the facility and purchasing more sophisticated equipment to better monitor hours of operation and pre-heating temperature requirements as well as temperatures during operation.

• The companies have submitted and IEPA has accepted a new written procedure for pre-heating the incinerator prior to loading it with carcasses and for the proper monitoring of the burn temperatures.

With assistance from the McDonough County Soil and Water Conservation Service (McDonough County SWCD), Madigan said Pinnacle and Swine Management also planted more than 100 trees as a windbreak and privacy buffer for a cattle lot near the truck wash.  The companies also have donated $2,500 to a school demonstration project conducted by the McDonough County SWCD and an additional $2,500 toward a feasibility study on wind monitoring at nine area schools through Prairie Hills Resource Conservation and Development.

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