March 4, 2010

Perdue Farms faces environmental lawsuit

A Maryland environmental activist group has filed a lawsuit against Perdue Farms and one of the poultry company's local contract farms on pollution charges.

Assateague Coastal Trust accused the Berlin, Maryland-based Hudson Farm, which raises chickens for Perdue, was polluting the Chesapeake Bay with manure-contaminated runoff. The group said its complaint is based partly on results of water sampling up to February 12 from ditches that the group said flow from the property into surrounding waterways.

The group has asked the court to declare that Perdue and Hudson Farm have violated and continue to violate the federal Clean Water Act; to enjoin the defendants from discharging pollutants unless it results from a "25-year 24-hour rainfall"; and, among other requests, to order the defendants to pay civil penalties of up to US$37,500 per day for violations starting October 30, 2009.