The scent of vegetable processing has been known to waft through the warm autumn air around harvest time in Waseca. It’s an aroma that residents don’t find pleasant. That is soon to change.
At its Tuesday meeting, the Waseca County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a permit for Birds Eye to build a new industrial waste processing facility in Woodville Township. This new system is expected to significantly reduce the odor the current facility creates.
The new facility will not only make Waseca a less odorous city, it will also assure that Birds Eye stays in operation, according to County Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Leiferman.
The existing facility, which includes a lagoon built in the ‘50s, no longer meets state regulations. According to Leiferman, the current 16-acre lagoon was also filling with sediment which meant it wasn’t accepting the full volume of water it should have.
According to the criteria for approval presented to the board, “Birds Eye is a major employer and taxpayer within Waseca County and will not be able to operate the facility without relocating the company’s industrial wastewater treatment facilities.”
Construction of the new facility and lagoon is expected to begin this fall and carry on throughout next summer, according to Environmental Engineer Lana Tullis from Bolton and Menk, the architecture firm for the project.
The new lagoon will be constructed on a spray field in Woodville Township already owned by Birds Eye.
The new system should be up and running by September 2015 and the current lagoon in St. Mary Township will then be fully decommissioned. Decommissioning can take up to two years.
While the construction of the new facility will bring a few jobs to the area, Leiferman and Tullis said the new facility was meant to fix current issues.
Commission Chairman Blair Nelson said his biggest concern with the new system is “odor control.”
Leiferman said the new system will put more oxygen into the water which reduces the smell.
The odor comes from a mixture of storm water, cooling water, waste water from vegetable processing and sweet corn silage.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has concluded that there are no significant negative environmental impacts from the project.