Mountaire neighbors consider legal battle

Millsboro resident Casey Berger wonders how much longer she will have to buy water for her family. Ever since a water test showed the a level of nitrates above the permitted 10 milligrams per liter at her Hollyville home, neither she nor her husband, two kids and pets drink water from the tap.

The expense is adding up.

“This is costing a lot of money for drinking, cooking and things like that,” she said during a Jan. 8 meeting sponsored by a Lewes law firm. Berger was one of about 150 residents who attended the meeting to learn about the firm’s plan to require Mountaire to improve groundwater and repair damages to residents living near the Route 24 plant.

Chase Brockstedt told Berger she and her family should continue to drink bottled water.

“We're going to force Mountaire to be a good neighbor and comply with environmental laws and permits,” he said.

Brockstedt said his team of legal experts is representing more than 100 people, and another 75 have shown interest in retaining legal services against Mountaire.

Millsboro resident Barry Rogers said he has known no other home than the one he has lived in, which sits less than a mile east of the Mountaire plant. He said Mountaire has been providing him with water, but three five-gallon tanks every two weeks is not enough for himself and his two dogs. “I don't know what to do,” he said.

Rogers said he has relatives who have lost unborn children, and he worries about the health effects of drinking nitrates. He said he also worries about taking on a powerful corporation alone. He encouraged his neighbors to work together as a unified force.

“If we don't stick together, we don't have a chance,” he said. “It'll eat us alive.”

Others were also unsure what to do. 

“You say this could affect property values. Would my property come under that?” asked a resident who lives south of Mountaire.

Another resident who lives eight miles from the poultry plant periodically tests her water. “I'm just trying to figure out if my well is contaminated,” she said.

Following a 2003 corrective plan ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mountaire provided bottled water to eight Millsboro homes and installed a water filtration system at one. The poultry plant recently extended the water offer to 88 homes near the plant after Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control cited Mountaire for exceeding nitrogen limits in its spray irrigation system – the company's second violation in 2017. Besides high levels of nitrates detected in August, bacteria found in sprayed wastewater was measured at more than 5,000 times the permitted level. One sample found fecal coliform exceeded 1 million colonies per 100 milliliters. Mountaire spokesman Sean McKeon said some employees were fired in connection with releasing high levels of nitrates and fecal coliform onto farmland in August.

In December, Mountaire officials canvassed the area around the Millsboro plant, asking 88 residents if they would be interested in deeper wells. McKeon said about two dozen residents said they would be interested. There would be no cost for drilling or maintenance of the new wells if Mountaire decides to move ahead with those plans, McKeon said. The company is also in talks with a private water provider, but McKeon offered no further details.

McKeon said Mountaire meets with DNREC on a monthly basis about the plant's spray irrigation system. Mountaire is also working with a company to design a new wastewater treatment system for the plant. “It's still in the design phase,” he said.

The proposed improvements are no comfort for resident Lee Peterson. He said he still does not know what level of contaminants are in his well. “I'm not sure why we don't have the data,” he said.

Environmental and legal consultant Roger Truitt, who is part of the legal team, said they are focusing on improving well water in an area surrounding the Mountaire poultry plant on Route 24. Years of nitrate use in the area has caused seepage into the groundwater, he said, but it's time to fix it.

“It will probably get worse before it gets better,” he said.

Truitt said high levels of nitrates can lead to potentially fatal blue-baby syndrome – a condition that deprives unborn children of oxygen and can kill them. Digestion of high levels of nitrates has also been linked to gastrointestinal problems and hypertension, he said.

In the short term, Truitt said, boiling does not eliminate nitrates from water, but there are systems to filter them out.

Water filtration and testing

Resident Bill Eckard said he is in the water filtration business, and there are reverse-osmosis systems that can reduce the amount of nitrates in the water. He said residents should check their water for nitrates in the spring and fall because those seasons tend to record the highest levels.

DNREC is working with the Division of Public Health's Office of Drinking Water to expand sampling for private wells in the area, said spokesman Michael Globetti.

While supporting the effort to hold Mountaire accountable for excessive nitrate levels, Eckard said it will be difficult to prove that the poultry industry is the sole source of high nitrates in the area. Mountaire attorneys will be quick to point that out, he said.

“You have to look at the whole playing field. The Eastern Shore is one of the most excessive areas of nitrates that exceed maximum contaminant levels,” he said.

McKeon declined to comment on pending litigation. He said he is aware there are attorneys working on class-action suits.

Competing law firms

Residents who sign with Baird Mandalas Brockstedt LLC agree to pay 35 percent of the total recovered on their behalf to the law firm. The percentage increases to 40 percent if the case extends to a pretrial conference. Brockstedt said their goal is to make sure residents' medical and health issues are addressed, and they are compensated for any loss to their property value.

In addition to Brockstedt's firm, Jacobs & Crumplar, which is working with Washington, D.C.-based Nidel & Nace, is also investigating the environmental impact to groundwater in the Mountaire area.

Attorney Chris Nidel said they held two meetings about contaminated groundwater and its effect on health and property values. He said they are representing about 35 residents, some of whom have experienced miscarriages and had children born with birth defects.

“We know nitrates are a bad thing, and these levels are high,” Nidel said. “It's not surprising if someone was drinking high parts of nitrates and they might have a problem with pregnancy.”

Nidel also said he has spoken with Brockstedt about aligning strategies, although it remains to be seen if the firms join forces. “We're at the front end of that,” he said.

Brockstedt said the firms expect to meet in early February. “I’m hopeful that we can work together.”

For more information on Jacobs & Crumplar/Nidel & Nace, call 934-9700.

For more information on the Brockstedt case, call 645-2262 or go to www.mountairewaterpollution.com.