Maple Leaf will be able to steam ahead with its plan to expand hog processing at its Brandon plant now that Manitoba Conservation has approved its application for amendments to its environmental licence.
This means that once the company’s $10 million upgrade to the City of Brandon’s waste water treatment facility is completed by mid-2007, it will be able to boost the number of hogs it kills to 75,000 per week, up from 50,000. The company also plans to hire 1,000 more workers and introduce a second shift later this winter.
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Maple Leaf said the increased capacity at the plant would be served by the company’s existing operations, meaning that the province’s ban on new hog barns will not affect plans.
Conservation minister Stan Struthers said Maple Leaf’s commitment to investing in the upgrades would benefit the province’s waterways, particularly the Assiniboine River, which receives all of the city’s treated waste water.
The amendments are based on the new provincial environmental requirements, which limit phosphorus to one milligram per litre of waste water, and nitrogen to 15 mg per litre.
“These waste water standards will be among the toughest for any single industrial user in the province,” he said. “By this time next year, phosphorus concentrations will be reduced by more than 90 percent and nitrogen concentrations will have declined by 85 percent.”
