River Valley Ingredients

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River Valley Ingredients is a major poultry rendering plant located on the banks of the Mulberry Fork,on a 600-acre site at 914 Cullman County Road 508, south of Hanceville, between I-65 and U.S. Highway 31. It has been described as the world's largest poultry rendering plant, employing 230 people and processing 45 million pounds of offal weekly. It receives 1,000 trucks per day from 20 poultry processors, as well as frozen carcasses from farm losses, and converts them into poultry meal for livestock feed, pet food, and oils.

The plant was constructed in 1950 by the Poultry By-Products, Inc. of Canton, Georgia, and operated as Alabama Feed Products, with an address at 1170 County Road 508. In 1977 the plant was acquired for a nominal pice by Beatrice Foods of Downers Grove, Illinois. In 1981 it was sold, again for a nominal price, to American Proteins of Cumming, Georgia, and operated as its "Plant B". In 1982 ownership of the plant property was transferred to the Industrial Development Board of Hanceville, and leased to the plant. Many of the plant facilities were rebuilt or upgraded in 1996. In 2003 the Industrial Development Board transferred the property back to American Proteins.

A primary function of the plant is to contain and process wastes. It releases about 400,000 gallons of treated water into the Mulberry Fork daily. The company has claimed that the organic load of its waste processing facility was equivalent to a sewer plant serving a city of 900,000 people like San Jose, California.1. In 2004 and 2010 the Hanceville plant won the "Clean Water Award" from the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association for the operation of its waste water treatment facility.

In May 2011 more than 1.6 million gallons of wastewater from the plant spilled into Mulberry Fork. That leak was blamed on damage to a wastewater containment pond caused by a tornado. Jason Spann was brought on as general manager of the Hanceville plant September of that year.

In May–June 2015 the Hanceville plant released 80,000 gallons of wastewater into the river. On August 7, 2016 an unintentionally opened valve in a storage tank on the plant property led to the release of around 150 gallons of sulfuric acid, somewhat diluted by stormwater, into Mulberry Fork. The Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources estimated that nearly 38,000 fish were killed over a 1.55-mile stretch of the river. Consequently American Proteins directed their vendor to remove all of its storage tanks from the facility. The company agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

By 2018 American Proteins, which had reorganized as AMPRO Fisheries Inc., was operating four rendering plants in Alabama and Georgia, as well as 13 blending facilities across the Southeast and Midwest. In August of that year Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, Arkansas acquired the company and its assets for $850 million.

On June 6, 2019 a temporary pipeline installed by a contractor to move wastewater from one pond to another ruptured, spilling untreated waste into the river and causing a massive fish kill over a 40-mile stretch of Mulberry Fork. Following an investigation, the State of Alabama filed a lawsuit alleging that the company "engaged in negligent and wanton conduct by causing a public nuisance, committing a trespass to State land, and by committing a trespass to chattel, resulting in the death of various species of fish and other wildlife." In August 2021 the company agreed to a $3 million settlement.

On July 30, 2021 a fire broke out at the plant, causing significant damage and forcing it to suspend most operations. Multiple area fire departments responded. No injuries or releases of pollutants were reported. A smaller fire in a maintenance shop at the plant was reported in August of the same year. Tyson distributed $258,000 to the departments involved to help them acquire new equipment. In a lawsuit filed in 2022 reinsurer CGI claimed that Tyson had represented the replacement value of the plant as $72.4 million in 2018, but filed a claim for $414.5 million after the 2021 fire.

In April 2022 Tyson announced plans to construct a new 121,000 square-foot rendering plant on the same site, slightly further from the river, at its present address. The projected cost of construction was $208 million. Tyson also announced that it was keeping 124 employees on payroll during the interim before the new plant opened in mid-2023. The Cullman County Commission approved $9,532,875 in abatement of non-education taxes to support the project.

IsoNova Technologies operates a pet food plant adjacent to River Valley Ingredients.

Notes

  1. American Proteins statement, quoted in Sack-2016

References

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