Maryland’s environmental regulator is poised to allow a soybean processor on the Eastern Shore to discharge up to five times more polluted water into the headwaters of a Chesapeake Bay tributary.
The pending action comes as the owner of the Salisbury soybean plant, agribusiness giant Perdue Farms, continues to struggle with removing PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” from its effluent more than three years after their discovery. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) contends that the new permit will provide more protection to the surrounding community.
“In the simplest terms, this draft permit is more restrictive than the current permit and will require immediate action if any level of these compounds is detected in the wastewater discharge,” MDE spokeswoman Aimena Lipscomb said in a statement…