Allen Harim agrees to end wastewater discharges into nearby creek
On Friday, Allen Harim announced it will no longer discharge wastewater into the nearby Beaverdam Creek, but it will be another year and half before the infrastructure is in place to make this happen.
Allen Harim reached an agreement with Artesian Wastewater Management Inc., that the discharged wastewater from Allen Harim's chicken processing plant will now be going to Artesian's Northern Sussex Recycling facility north of Milton, Del.
From there, Artesian will use the wastewater for spray irrigation on agricultural land.
Over the next 18 months, Artesian will be constructing a pipeline to transport the water to their facility.
The Executive Vice President for Artesian, Joseph Dinunzio, tells 47 ABC this is a way to reutilize the water locally.
He says, "This is something that rather than this water going off to a stream and therefore out to the bay and ocean, it allows the water cycle to be preserved locally. So the water originally came out of wells in the area, its now going to go back to the ground water in the area with a beneficial use with assisting in agricultural products."
Along with the pipeline, Dinunzio says there will also be a lagoon constructed for storage purposes that will connect to the spray irrigation systems, that a farmer utilizes for agricultural purposes.
And so far Artesian already has one deal with a local farmer that will use the wastewater on over 1,200 acres.
Dinunzio also tells us that until the pipeline is completed, Allen Harim will continue discharging their wastewater into the Beaverdam Creek.
DNREC, who loaned Allen Harim $11.5 million to finance an upgrade of its wastewater treatment facility in Harbeson, has agreed to direct $5 million of the remaining loan balance to fund a one-time impact fee to Artesian.
We're told Artesian will be making a $17 million investment in infrastructure for the disposal of the treated wastewater.
The Environmental Protection Agency has also approved the new treatment plan.
