The Alabama Department of Environmental Management set a hearing next month to receive comments from the public on a air permit application sought by Pilgrim's Pride for a proposed rendering plant on Steele Station Road.

The announcement came days after the executive director of Coosa Riverkeeper, Justinn Overton, made public a State Indirect Discharge Permit application filed Oct. 22 by Pilgrim's Pride with ADEM's Water Division.

Included in the application is a letter from Mark Glover, Pilgrim's Pride head of byproduct/MCS, referencing a plant "to be built" in the City of Gadsden, and a letter from the city's Water Works and Sewer Board certifying that the plant has been granted permission to dispose of pretreated wastewater by discharging it into the Gadsden Water collection system for further treatment at the West River treatment plant.

Critics of the proposed plant point to that language to claim the effort to bring the plant to Gadsden is further in the recruitment process than city officials have indicated, but officials with Gadsden Water say that's not the case.

They also dispute Coosa Riverkeeper's contention that discharged wastewater would flow into Big Wills Creek or Lake Gadsden.

The letter circulated by the advocacy group notes permission for discharge is subject to the discharge meeting National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and Gadsden Water standards, "and/or Gadsden Water facilities' abilities to continue treating such discharge."

Gadsden Water in a statement said the utility's role "is to evaluate the system’s ability to provide water and sewer services to potential industries, and then based on that evaluation, determine whether the industry can be serviced. 

"According to the industry’s SID permit application, up to 0.621 million gallons of water per day could be discharged from the proposed industry," the statement continued. "The average daily flow of the West plant in 2019 was recorded to be 7.57 million gallons per day, while the plant has a design capacity of 11.32 million gallons per day. The evaluation also determined it was necessary for the industry to install pretreatment facilities prior to its discharge to the Gadsden Water collection system.

According to the permit application the maximum daily wastewater discharge flow would be 0.621 million gallons of water per day, over seven days a week, from the plant Pilgrim's Pride proposes. The permit also makes references to the future addition of a chicken meal line at the plant, which would increase that maximum flow by 20%.

Overton said, in a recorded Facebook discussion, that mention of the future line shows the plant already plans expansion at the site — something that critics took note of.

Those critics of the plant are many: There are petitions and have been protests against the plant, and signs, billboards and T-shirts to display disapproval. Although the proposed site is in Gadsden's city limits, on property owned by the Gadsden Airport Authority, it is adjacent to Rainbow City and near Attalla.

Attalla, Rainbow City and Southside city councils have passed resolutions opposing the plant.

Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, has proposed legislation designed to prevent such plants from coming to Etowah County, and people have turned out in large numbers to protest the plant's potential smell, affect on air and water quality, property values, and future development in the area.

Overton, who heads the advocacy group for protecting the Coosa River and its tributaries, questioned the effect of putting that volume of water into the Gadsden sewer system. "Think of every manhole between (the proposed site) and Gadsden West" treatment plant, she said.

She said the water could have phosphorus, pathogens like E.coli, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia and other pollutants.

The rendering plant could put a sort of double whammy on waterways, according to Overton, with stormwater and wastewater.

Storm water, she said, is what falls from the sky. She said the plant's application indicates there will be a storm water lagoon, to catch any rainfall and possibly whatever rain might wash from trucks that haul byproducts there. The question, she said, is whether that storm water will be contained.

Overton said the application estimates accommodating 1.6 inches of rain over a three-day period. However, in 2020, she said, the area had 12 days that exceeded 1.6 inches of rain in that time frame.

Uncontained stormwater will go into Dry Creek, then into Canoe Creek, Overton said, and on to Lake Neely Henry.

As for the wastewater side, as much as 0.621 million gallons would flow to the Gadsden West wastewater treatment plant and, ultimately into the Coosa River.

Overton said Gadsden Water has had past issues with ADEM (as many water systems have). "Why would that facility put itself out there and agree to accept that volume" of wastewater from the proposed plant?" she said.

Overton indicated water from the treatment plant would flow into Big Wills Creek and Lake Gadsden — with swimming, fishing and wildlife use classifications.

However, Gadsden Water stressed in its statement, "The Gadsden West River wastewater treatment plant does not discharge any treated wastewater into Big Wills Creek or Lake Gadsden." 

BIg Wills Creek is on a watch list now for an excess of nitrogen in the water, Overton said, and the creek receives discharge from JCG Foods, a chicken plant in Collinsville.

Overton criticized the possible building of a plant "to discharge into a waterway that's already being used and abused by the chicken processing industry," and that is loved by so many who paddle and fish and enjoy Big Wills Creek.

According to the permit, the plant would generate other waste liquids and sludges that would not be disposed of in the sanitary sewer system:

Overton said biosolids are used sometimes as fertilizer — something an area of Etowah County has experienced previously with biosolids from another north Alabama rendering plant, which raised complaints from the community about an unbearable odor.

Overton questioned how Gadsden Water can handle the wastewater load from the plant.

ADEM's scheduled hearing on Pilgrim's Pride's application for an air permit for the proposed plant is 6 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Downtown Civic Center. There's been no word of a hearing in relation to the water permit process.