A Lethbridge hog processing plant has passed through the first hoop on the way to construction.
Yuan Yi Agricultural and Livestock Enterprise Co. Ltd. received approval to build from Alberta Environment last week.
The approval allows the Taiwanese company to get a permit to build a plant capable of processing up to 4,000 hogs a day. Rendering capacity was not included in the assessment, said an environment official.
“We didn’t expect any adverse affects on the soil, air or water quality,” said Jim Law.
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The assessment did not reveal any processing or animal handling procedures that are different from any other meat processing plant in the province. Otherwise, a more formal review would have been required, said Law.
A second, independent review is under way by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. The federal agency will decide if the city qualifies for a grant to build a special liquid effluent holding tank for the company.
The proposed plant has become a sore point in the southern Alberta community. Some people are concerned about the effects of the plant as well as the consequences of living beside Canada’s largest concentration of hog farms and beef feedlots.
City and provincial officials have repeatedly said the processing plant’s environmental impacts are not the same as what is experienced within the livestock production sector.
However, a group of Lethbridge citizens said they still want a full environmental impact study and are considering a legal challenge to Alberta Environment’s approval of the plant.
