JBS agrees to $50,000 pollution penalty

Unable to resolve alleged odor violations with the JBS pork processing plant dating to 2011, the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District this week has moved to take the dispute to a state-appointed hearings officer in a trial-like proceeding.

It's a rare step for an agency that nearly always is able to reach agreements with local businesses on violations of local air quality rules.

JBS Swift and the district have also reached a new agreement on other non-odor alleged violations, with a company representative saying JBS will pay a $51,750 penalty.

But the odor complaints continue to be a sticking point.

"Swift is concerned that the District’s odor standard and its procedures for investigating odors are entirely subjective and can be applied arbitrarily," said the company's attorney, Dennis J. Conniff.

He said in a written statement the district was unwilling to make changes to its procedures to make them less subjective, so JBS Swift requested the hearing.

"The matter will now go before a hearing officer, who will decide whether the district’s procedures for investigating and determining odor violations are proper, and, if so, whether odor violations occurred as alleged by the district," Conniff said.

District spokesman Tom Nord said the Kentucky attorney general's office will be asked to provide a hearing officer and then both sides will go through a period of exchanging information and documents. He said a hearing may be a year away and no date has been set yet. He declined further comment.

The meatpacking plant slaughters up to 10,000 hogs a day and has been in a zoning fight with some of its neighbors over plant modifications and a parking lot for refrigeration trucks.

A recent Courier-Journal analysis of companies that paid fines to the air district from 2003 through 2014 ranked JBS 10th, with $114,500. The JBS Swift plant also landed at the top of the list of companies with the most pollution incidents that produced fines at 28.

In recent years, however, JBS and the district have been unable agree on district inspectors' allegations of objectionable odors wafting from the plant into the surrounding Butchertown neighborhood.

In the district's legal filing dated Monday, it identified some 70 days when it found what inspectors described as excessive odors beyond the plant's property, adding up to $142,000 in fines. District officials said they have been willing to resolve the violations for 75 percent of the assessed amount.

District records also show JBS has the largest number of unresolved air pollution enforcement actions, 30 out of 50.

Nord and Conniff said the new agreement on non-odor violations will come before the local air pollution board Dec. 16 for approval.

Conniff said the company reported those to the district and that primarily involved missed monitoring and record-keeping requirements.

"Swift has taken action to correct the violations," he said.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com.