Smithfield Foods has built a new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system to replace a majority of the existing system at its pork-processing complex in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The new $45 million wastewater system adds additional treatment processes and capabilities to meet new and more stringent permit limits on nitrates and ammonia. The upgraded system biologically converts ammonia-nitrogen in wastewater to nitrate-nitrogen and further removes nitrate-nitrogen from wastewater, a treatment process known as denitrification that is strongly preferred by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency due to its reduced impact on aquatic life. The new denitrification process will reduce Smithfield’s overall nitrogen load to the Big Sioux River by two-thirds or more.