How Do You Define "Clean"?

The Simmons Food plant in Southwest City (MO) processes 2 million chickens a week, but when it comes to water quality, company officials say their waste water is "clean". Hummm? http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=194605

In 1998, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, got a court order requiring millions of dollars in upgrades to the water-treatment system at the Southwest City plant. In 1999, Nixon asked the company to be found in contempt for violating a consent order setting specific limits on the amount of phosphorous, ammonia and nitrates that could be discharged into the watershed. In 1998 and 1999, the company was fined more than $700,000 by the states of Missouri and Oklahoma to settle complaints about wastewater discharges from the plant. Does that sound like "clean" water to you?

The Joplin Globe, Tuesday, June 28, 2005, article states that local residents who live in Oklahoma said the water in Cave Springs Branch and Honey Creek contains sludge and smells bad. Last Friday it was reported that Bruce Martin, Regional Director of Missouri Department of Natural Resources(MDNR) said that "(he) would not let (his) children swim in the creek. I would not let my children swim in any creek unless it's been tested regularly and I know it's safe". The Joplin Globe, Friday, June 24, 2005.

OK, so the obvious question is, how do you define "clean"? I don't think that Simmon's definition of "clean" and my definition, or the local residents or the Regional Director of MDNR, are the same. Simmons says that the discharge water is clean because there are fish in it. Albert Midoux, an environmental activist from Anderson (MO), said that the presence of fish in the stream near the company's water discharge does not prove that the water is clean because some species of fish can live in poluted water. What do you think?

This poultry processing plant is less than a mile east of the Oklahoma state line. All the treated wastewater flows from the plant into Cave Springs Branch, then into Honey Creek, and finally into Oklahoma's Grand Lake.