On Water and Wastewater
We recognize that we use a considerable amount of water in our processes, and Hormel Foods is committed to reducing our impact on water systems. Our strategy for wastewater involves upgrading our pretreatment equipment, collaborating with city officials to solve common issues and improving communications to help stakeholders understand our position.
In FY 2006, we used 3.41 billion gallons of water in 11 primary facilities. As our operations grow, we look for ways to decrease our water use, including establishing a goal for total water use, implementing water conservation/water reuse programs, tracking usage and communicating performance against goal.
Plants implement daily checks, seven days a week to ensure water is shut off on breaks and in between shifts as well as monitoring for unnecessary water use. Plants have installed flow restriction devices on equipment and replaced certain equipment so that it uses less water.
Wastewater Impact
To reduce wastewater impact, all of our plants are taking steps to identify projects and measure our emissions into the surrounding water sources. We operate one full-treatment plant and 29 pre-treatment plants in the United States. In other cases, we partner with the cities in which we operate to meet and exceed wastewater standards. From November 2005 to June 2007, we had one violation for exceeding our water treatment permit. In total, we spent more than $12.6 million in 11 facilities from November 2005 to October 2006 on wastewater treatment, handling more than 18 million gallons per day. Before wastewater is sent to a city treatment plant or is discharged into a waterway, wastewater from our facilities is always treated so it meets government-approved levels. Our pretreatment systems are mechanical separators that remove oil, grease and suspended solids. Some plants have chemical systems to supplement the mechanical equipment.
View our benchmarks and more information about wastewater projects on page 26 of our full report [PDF].