DNREC hears Mountaire stormwater permit request

Mountaire Farms is requesting a renewal of its permit for a stormwater management system at its Selbyville chicken processing plant.

At a Nov. 2 public hearing, Wenjia Fan, an engineer with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said Mountaire is seeking reissuance of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to discharge stormwater into Sandy Branch, a stream that runs adjacent to the Mountaire plant.

Fan said the plant only discharges stormwater runoff into Sandy Branch, not wastewater. Sandy Branch feeds into another stream, Bunting Branch, and ultimately into Isle of Wight Bay in Maryland. She said the facility has a pretreatment plant for processed wastewater, which is diverted to the town of Selbyville’s wastewater treatment plant. 

Mountaire utilizes nine outfalls throughout the poultry processing complex that discharge stormwater. Two of the outfalls run from infiltration ponds that only discharge when the ponds overflow, while four discharge from the area around the employee parking lot, one from the back portion of the plant, one from the roof of the plant, and one from the animal holding shed roof. 

DNREC regulations require that the stormwater discharge must be free from floating solids, sludge deposits, debris, oil and scum. DNREC monitors the outfalls for solids, nitrogen and phosphorus, and enterococcus once every quarter. 

There were no public comments during the Nov. 2 virtual hearing and no presentation from Mountaire. Public comment closes Wednesday, Nov. 17; comments can be submitted until then via an online form at DNREC’s website, by email to DNRECHearingComments@delaware.gov or by mail to Lisa A. Vest, Office of the Secretary, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901.