Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative is aiming to remain in compliance with environmental regulations it anticipates will become more stringent in the years ahead.
“We’ll watch it real close and keep an eye on the ball,’’ Gary Hamlin, vice president of operations for the cooperative, told the Renville County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
Hamlin’s comments followed an annual report on environmental compliance to the board by Louis Knieper, manager of environmental affairs for the sugar processor in Renville. The report is a requirement of the cooperative’s permit to discharge treated wastewater into County Ditch 45, which becomes Sacred Heart Creek.
Knieper reported the company experienced some permit exceedances for spills at two beet pile sites last year, but overall had no significant environmental violations during 2015. That achievement comes during a record year for the company’s operations. The plant processed 3.505 million tons of sugar beets, one of the largest crops ever. The processing campaign ran from August into May, one of the longest runs ever as well.
Knieper’s report comes three weeks after the company signed a consent decree in federal court to pay $1.5 million in penalties for environmental violations. It included $485,000 for hydrogen sulfide emissions from its storage ponds in 2013 and 2014, $49,000 in restitution for a 2013 fish kill in Beaver Creek, and what the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency described as “numerous, ongoing water quality violations from 2009 to 2015.’’
Source: www.wctrib.com