EPA fines Baxter Springs food plant for 2008 wastewater discharges

Volunteers from Tuscaloosa paying it forward in Joplin

As the teens moved farther along the bleachers they were painting, splotches of bright red paint kept appearing where it didn’t exactly belong. On the ground. On their arms and legs. On their clothing.

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January 31, 2011

By Roger McKinney Globe Staff Writer The Joplin Globe Mon Jan 31, 2011, 05:14 PM CST

BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. — The Environmental Protection Agency has assessed a $390,000 civil penalty against Orval Kent Food Co. for overloading the Baxter Springs wastewater treatment system and polluting Spring River in 2008.

An inspection of the city’s wastewater treatment system by the EPA found that Orval Kent’s processing plant routinely overloaded the city’s treatment system, causing pollution to spill into Spring River, which flows into Oklahoma.

Terms of a settlement also require the company, based in Wheeling, Ill., to spend $32,500 to restock fish in the Spring River watershed.

Baxter Springs Mayor Huey York said a pre-treatment system at the Orval Kent plant has been in operation since last February and has solved the problem. He said no smell has been reported from the sewer lagoon for about a year.

“We’re seeing some good results at out lagoon,” York said.

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