CLA Makes Waves with Valley Proteins Win

“It took a team of nonprofits, including Chesapeake Legal Alliance, to finally force MDE into taking a strong position to protect water quality from one of the State’s worst permit violators.”

– Matt Pluta, Director of Riverkeeper Programs at ShoreRivers
Chesapeake Legal Alliance on behalf of its clients, ShoreRivers and Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, recently announced an agreement to settle a lawsuit against Valley Proteins, LLC for ongoing water pollution violations at its facility on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Valley Proteins, LLC operates an industrial plant in Linkwood, Maryland, that uses a chemical process to render chicken carcass parts into protein for animal feed and other products, which it then sells. The plant’s Clean Water Act permit expired in 2006, but the state enabled the company to continue to operate by administratively extending the permit for more than 15 years, and allowed Valley Proteins to illegally discharge pollutants into the Transquaking River and threaten public health over that period.

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