By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

"I suggested (a shutdown) to Swift," she said. "It's the last thing I want to do, but it's a possibility."

Hornady said Swift is the largest single client of the city's wastewater treatment plant and is also the city's largest employer.

"Shutting them off would shut them down," she said.

But Hornady said she cannot allow the meatpacking plant to continue "slamming" the city with overloads in its wastewater discharges.

The city and Swift both have violated their discharge permits four times in the last nine months and received violation notices from the Department of Environmental Quality. The notices could lead to fines of up to $10,000 a day.

City Public Information Officer Wendy Meyer-Jerke said discharges from Swift on Friday and Saturday into the wastewater treatment plant had suspended solids four times the average daily load. That led to another violation of the city's discharge permit.

"The overload consisted of suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and oil and grease," Meyer-Jerke said.

The BOD levels in the wastewater treatment plant's outfall ditch registered at a level of 4 on Monday when tested by Dave Bubb, a field specialist with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. A level of 10 is more common in Platte River water, he said.

Bubb said a level of 4 is low enough to suffocate fish and could have been the cause of a substantial fish kill reported Saturday that appeared to start at the wastewater treatment plant and extend east for 24 miles. More than 10,600 fish in the Wood River and Platte River were killed, said fisheries biologist Brad Newcomb of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Hornady said she doesn't know if the overloads from Swift and the city led to the fish kill, but she wants the overloads stopped.

She talked with Swift plant manager Dennis Sydow about the problems Tuesday. He indicated the plant was working on a solution.

"They feel their lagoon isn't running properly," Hornady said.

Swift utilities manager John Ditter reported to DEQ that "JBS Swift has been continuously working with the problems associated with the present undersized anaerobic lagoon."

He said a coagulant and micro-organism nutrient management plan were started in January, as well as a chemical program to make the discharge from Swift more neutral in pH level. Ditter said attempts are being made to reduce the amount of "caustic soda" in the system.

Ditter said oils and grease were creating surface foam, which since late February is being treated with an anti-foam chemical.

Swift is working to add a 25-million-gallon anaerobic lagoon and a digester to better treat its discharges on the long-term level, he told DEQ.

Meyer-Jerke said the expansion of Swift's anaerobic pre-treatment lagoon isn't expected until August.

A summer fix is too long to wait, Hornady said.

She also suggested to Swift officials Tuesday that they consider reducing their kill levels until the overloading problem is under control.

"So help me, Hannah, it will get resolved," Hornady said.