At its Sept. 17 meeting, the Sussex County Board of Adjustment approved a request by Allen Harim Foods LLC to amend a condition of approval on its deboning facility in Millsboro.

In May, the board approved a special-use exception for the deboning operation. The condition in question required an upgraded spray-irrigation system in operation before the facility could open.

After much discussion and a failed motion, the board voted 4-0 to amend the condition to allow the applicant to continue with the project to allow time to obtain permits from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for the wastewater facility.

Those permits would include one for hauling wastewater for off-site treatment and a permit for a spray-irrigation disposal system.

On the advice of board attorney Jamie Sharp, the board did not put a deadline on the amount of time the company can haul wastewater before the spray-irrigation system is approved. He said there is no way to determine how long the permitting process would take.

Making the motion, board member Dale Callaway said DNREC officials have jurisdiction over wastewater treatment facilities. He said the permitting process provides safeguards to protect area waterways.

Board member Bruce Mears’ motion to eliminate the condition failed for lack of a second.

Allen Harim has plans to upgrade its wastewater system, but those upgrades are in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control approval process, so the system will not be ready when the deboning facility is operational, company officials said. Until the new system is functional, Allen Harim proposed to truck wastewater to its Harbeson plant.

Allen Harim plans to renovate 50,000 square feet of its 450,000-square-foot Millsboro facility on Pinnacle Way – the former Vlasic pickle plant – for deboning, packaging and shipping of about 2 million pounds of chicken per week in a one-shift operation. Processed chicken for deboning would be trucked from Allen Harim's Harbeson plant.