5-20 IAN Washington Beef vs. EPA 2
EPA sues for the sake of revenue. Yesterday I told you about a lawsuit that was launched by the EPA against Washington Beef over what they called a Clean Water Act violation. The action cost parent company Agri Beef $750,000 and I got a thorough explanation from Executive Vice President Rick Stott that the actions of Washington beef were not irresponsible and that they took great efforts to clean water coming out of their plant. But there’s more to the story: “Technically we were in violation with our permit…was there a resolution that could have been amicable without the attorneys’ fees? Yeah. We put it on the table and it was dismissed and ignored. That’s the most disappointing part of this whole thing. The lack of civility in the process. Disappointing we can’t resolve these issues in a more productive way. We started planning the upgrades to our system many years ago…almost immediately after we acquired the plant. As soon as this enforcement action was initiated we had to hold off on all that and couldn’t move forward with it. That’s unfortunate but that’s part of the process as well.
