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Water
We aim to reduce water consumption by two percent per year for five years.
The goal at Hormel Foods is to reduce water consumption by 2 percent per year for five years at each of the 41 U.S. manufacturing locations. Our water sources include municipal utilities and company-owned wells.
Water use during 2007 was 5.66 billion gallons. Through new initiatives and education of our employees, we were pleased to report a decrease to 5.42 billion gallons during 2008. Total water reduction was 4 percent (7 percent when normalized for production) from 2007 to 2008 — a total reduction of 242 million gallons.
Water Initiatives
Projects to improve our use of water have included:
- Water reuse in Fremont, NE — Capturing water from a reverse osmosis treatment process and using it to clean hog casings, which was completed in 2008; and
- Water recovery and reuse in Algona, IA — Water used to cool hydraulic units is reused in manufacturing processes in the plant. This saves 3 million gallons annually and was completed in October 2008.
Wastewater Initiatives
Significant attention is paid to handling the wastewater from our facilities. In addition to volume, effluent is monitored for items such as Biochemical Oxygen Demand, total suspended solids, pH, oil, grease, temperature and phosphorous.
Projects to improve wastewater handling have included:
- Wastewater pretreatment at West Central Turkey’s Plant in Pelican Rapids, MN — As part of this plant expansion, we installed new wastewater pretreatment equipment. The project was finished in the summer 2008; and
- Wastewater improvement at the Hormel Foods Plant in Knoxville, IA — New equalization tank and treatment system for wastewater was installed in 2008 to help treat water before it goes to the city wastewater plant.