Sludge Watch ==> Spinach firm struggles -on site sewage system never built

[Maureen Reilly]

Spinach firm struggling with waste-water troubles
Company exceeding city disposal permit












By MATT WEISER and DORSEY GRIFFITH
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Last Updated: September 22, 2006, 07:43:03 AM PDT
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA - The spinach-packaging company in the cross hairs of an 
investigation into a nationwide E. coli outbreak has struggled to manage its 
waste water and is in violation of a state water-disposal permit, according 
to public records and state officials.
There is no indication these problems at Natural Selection Foods contributed 
to the outbreak. Investigators have not pinpointed a single source. But 
federal officials said wastewater management and processing habits at 
Natural Selection and other companies have not been ruled out.
"Yes, the investigation of the plants is ongoing, and investigators have 
been in there looking at all the practices in the plants in terms of areas 
where spinach could have been contaminated in the process," said Dr. David 
Acheson, chief medical officer with the Food and Drug Administration's 
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Governor to tout vegetable
Gov. Schwarzenegger said he plans to promote California spinach in a 
commercial to help the industry rebound from the E.coli bacteria scare.
"We have to help the industry, because every so often something like this 
happens, and we all have to really work together to help them again to get 
back because they are losing millions of dollars every day," Schwarzenegger 
said.
State agencies are meeting to discuss what "best practices" they can employ 
to protect against future outbreaks, said Susan Kennedy, Schwarzenegger's 
chief of staff.
Natural Selection, North America's largest processor of packaged salad 
greens, operated for years without a permanent disposal method for human 
sewage produced by employees, San Benito County records show.
The company has two wastewater systems: one for employee sewage, one for 
"wash water" from vegetable-packaging operations. The company has struggled 
with both in recent years.
In 1998, San Benito County records show, Natural Selection suffered a 
failure of its on-site septic system, which handled sewage generated by its 
400 employees. Until at least 2003, the company trucked this waste to an 
off-site facility, records state.
The company won county approval to expand its vegetable-processing 
facilities in 1999 - on the condition it build a new on-site sewage-disposal 
system. The system was not built. Yet the county allowed new buildings to be 
occupied in April 2000 after being told that the septic system would be 
built that summer.
Sewage system never built
The company received a $150,000 bid for the system, but it still didn't get 
built, county records show. Instead, the company asked the city of San Juan 
Bautista for permission to connect to its sewer system.
Establishing that sewer connection took years. But San Juan Bautista City 
Manager Jan McClintock said Natural Selection now is allowed to discharge 
waste water at 90,000 gallons per day into the city's system. She said that 
includes some vegetable wash water.
Cecile DeMartini, a water-resources engineer at the Central Coast Regional 
Water Quality Control Board, said Natural Selection is allowed to dispose of 
70,000 gallons per day of vegetable wash water by irrigating nearby fields 
that only can grow crops for animal feed.
DeMartini said that in a February inspection, she learned that the company 
was exceeding the permitted disposal limit. As of July, she said, the 
company disposed an average of 274,000 gallons per day on nearby fields.
"They could not tell me at what point in time they exceeded 70,000 gallons 
per day," she said.
San Benito County records show this limit was "frequently exceeded" as early 
as July 2001.
DeMartini said her agency is revisiting the permit conditions, which may 
result in permission for a larger discharge volume. The company may be fined 
for exceeding the current permit, but DeMartini could not estimate the size 
of those fines.
Drew and Myra Goodman, Natural Selection founders and executives, did not 
respond to a message left at their home.

http://www.modbee.com/business/story/12762612p-13456657c.html