A standing-room only crowd attended the Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning to express their concern about the incident, (Carol Bryant, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND — On Jan. 6, a wastewater lagoon at the JBS meatpacking plant in Grand Island had a breach, sending two million gallons of wastewater into a ditch near the facility, then emptied into Wood River and eventually reached the Platte River.
A standing-room only crowd attended the Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, Jan. 30, to express their concern about the incident, including how it would affect water from their drinking-water wells and swimming areas at a group of lakes east of the JBS plant. Each lake subdivision is surrounded by homes, and the homes get their drinking water from wells. They are not on city water lines.
No JBS official attended Tuesday’s meeting. Commissioner Jane Richardson, who lives at Kuester Lake east of JBS, placed the matter on the agenda. She is going to draft a letter to send to JBS that commissioners will review at their next meeting in two weeks. Commissioners voted 7-0 to have Richardson write the letter. Richardson said that the letter would also be sent to area state senators.
Two officials from the state Department of Environment and Energy attended Tuesday’s meeting and answered numerous questions. They were Brad Pracheil of Lincoln, administrator for the inspection and compliance division; and David Miesbach of Lincoln, groundwater/water well standards supervisor for the water quality division.
Richardson started off by saying she had done research about JBS issues of non-compliance, and had printed off 70 entries. She later noted that it appeared that JBS had about one violation a month.
“They need to be held accountable,” she said.
At the meeting, a document was available titled, “How to use NDEE’s Public Records Portal to View JBS Documents.” The document listed a web page to visit on the Department of Environment and Energy’s website (http://dee.ne.gov), then directions to go to a public records search. From there, the directions gave the JBS DEQ Facility Number to enter to do a search.
Richardson said she did not learn about the wastewater lagoon breach until Monday after the Saturday incident, when she saw a local TV station’s report about the incident. She said that information about the lagoon breach should have been made available to residents at the lake subdivisions right after the incident.
“I think we should know right away,” she said.
Commissioner Pam Lancaster noted that she lived in northwest Grand Island years ago when groundwater contamination occurred, caused by the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. She noted that the federal government came in and “put in city water” for residents.
Commissioner Gary Quandt estimated that JBS has 3,500 employees. It is a beef production facility that processes cattle. JBS is the largest meatpacker in the world.
Richardson said that the incident happened between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Jan. 6. The Department of Environment and Energy was contacted at 8 a.m. Jan. 6. A team from the Department of Environment and Energy was on-site at 12:20 p.m. Jan. 6. Cleanup started after that time. On Jan. 7, fish kill was noted in Wood River. JBS was given until Feb. 15 to write a remediation plan, she said. Richardson said that JBS could be fined by to $10,000 per violation for seven violations.
Miesbach was asked if the incident caused an impact to residents’ drinking water wells. He replied that there was not immediate impact to drinking water. He encouraged people to get their well water tested so a baseline could be established.
Rick Alexander of 517 Linden Ave. told commissioners, “It’s a serious breach.” He noted that because JBS did not have a representative attending Tuesday’s meeting, it was showing a lack of transparency. He said that JBS should be testing affected residents’ wells for free.
Miesbach said that groundwater moves only several feet a year.
Richardson said that JBS is “making $5 million a week.” She would like to see a representative of JBS attend the Commissioners’ next
meeting.
Richardson said at her home, she has had a reverse osmosis drinking water system installed.
