UNITED STATES-BEEF PLANT CLOSED OVER CONTMINATED WATER.
The Star Tribune reports that a beef slaughtering plant in Buffalo Lake has shut down because its water contained excessive arsenic levels.
More than 200 people at North Star Beef Inc. are out of work as a result. The plant’s owner, William Gilger, told the newspaper he couldn’t afford to fix the problem in time to avoid federal penalties because banks refused to lend him money.
The Minnesota Department of Health says Buffalo Lake has been treating city water for arsenic for the last eight years, but North Star Beef gets its water from a private well.
The plant had fallen behind in payments to its suppliers, and racked up back taxes to the county. The plant has also been the subject of civil penalties from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for the illegal discharge of blood and manure from its processing facility.
North Star Beef is one of the largest employers in Buffalo Lake , 90 minutes west of the Twin Cities, with a population of fewer than 800.