Cherryfield Foods to pay $106,000 in fines

The state Land Use Regulation Commission is expected to approve a $106,800 out-of-court settlement Thursday with Cherryfield Foods Inc. involving illegal discharges that affected two Down East rivers.

The consent agreement with the Washington County company stems from 1999 environmental violations in which Cherryfield Foods was responsible for discharges to rivers in which Atlantic salmon are an endangered species.

The company discharged significant amounts of silt-laden water into the Pleasant River during an April 1999 cranberry bog construction project. Then, that summer, it violated the wastewater discharge license at its Cherryfield plant by discharging blueberry-laden water and other debris into the Narraguagus River.

The agreement – which resolves both LURC and state Department of Environmental Protection violations – requires Cherryfield Foods to pay $78,852 directly to the state and spend an additional $27,948 on a project to eliminate any blueberry processing plant discharges into the Narraguagus. A message seeking comment from Cherryfield Foods was left on a company official’s answering machine but was not returned.

The company will install 6,000 feet of 5-inch pipe and pump the water from its Cherryfield plant to a 500,000-gallon storage pond in Milbridge. The water then will be sprayed on an approved site, according to the agreement.

If the company fails to comply with that requirement or any other condition of the 11-page settlement, the fine will be $100 a day, according to the document.

The Narraguagus and the Pleasant are among the five Washington County rivers where Atlantic salmon was listed as an endangered species in November 2000.

Both the incident at the Cherryfield Foods cranberry farm in Township 18 and the discharges at the blueberry processing plant occurred before the fish was listed as endangered, but the salmon was under state protection to avoid a federal listing.

The discharge at the cranberry bog came one year after Cherryfield Foods had signed a consent agreement with both agencies because the company failed to submit the required reports and plans before beginning to clear land on the Pretty Barrens site for the first 50 acres of its proposed 900-acre cranberry plantation.

Both agencies had given conditional approval to the project the previous year, and the plans were part of the permit conditions.

The clearing resulted in a discharge into a tributary of the Pleasant River.

In April 1999 – during construction of the bogs on Pretty Barrens – a significant discharge occurred, resulting in silt deposits in the Pleasant – 6.3 miles from the construction site – and all of the upstream tributaries. The sediment-laden water completely filled the overflow channels and plunge ponds at the outlets to the bog, continued beyond a silt fence into a wooded area and into a tributary of the Pleasant that contained significant spawning area rearing grounds for Atlantic salmon, according to the document.

The company did not report the incident to the DEP or LURC. When it was reported by a third party, investigators from both agencies found that the company had not constructed the bog in compliance with its permit and had failed to stabilize properly the perimeter dikes in accordance with a required erosion-control plan.

The violations at the processing plant took place a few months later when the company was processing blueberries.

Cherryfield Foods had a permit to discharge treated blueberry wastewater into the Narraguagus, but the company exceeded the limits for dissolved oxygen in the water and discharged water that was laden with blueberries and other debris.

The consent agreement requires the company to provide a written description of the cause and nature of the April 1999 discharge of silt into the Pleasant River and a plan for remedial action to prevent further discharges.

Cherryfield Foods must cease construction on the remaining four cranberry bed sites until LURC and the DEP review and approve all the submissions that are part of the consent agreement, and the company must conduct permeability tests on the cranberry bed.

Until the tests are conducted and reported, Cherryfield Foods must restrict applications of pesticide and fertilizer to the bog. If the permeability tests indicate that the infiltration rate is more than 1 inch in a 24-hour period, Cherryfield Foods must develop a revised groundwater monitoring plan and chemical application schedule, according to the agreement.

The commission will vote on the settlement during its meeting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Rangeley Inn in Rangeley.