ConAgra agrees to pay fine

ConAgra, the driving force behind Renewable Environmental Solutions, the company that has made people hold their noses in Carthage for more than a year, has agreed to plead guilty in U. S. District Court of the District of Minnesota to violating the Clean Water act at its food ingredient and flour mill in Hastings, Minn., according to a news release from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The company will pay a $138,513 criminal fine and $1,487 in restitution to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and provide $55,000 in community service to the National Park Foundation and $55,000 in community service to Friends of the Mississippi River
ConAgra officials admitted they negligently failed to report and maintain proper documentation of discharge water temperature readings as required by its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit, according to the EPA.
Those readings were higher than what was allowed according to the company's permit. The company logged the readings, but never gave them to pollution authorities, the EPA said.