this is what we get when we believe our polititions when they say lets remove regulations so we can produce more jobs for our poor nations. the judicial system needs looked at also. maybe some of their heads rolling in the blood river would make them more considerate

That's just nauseating. It's sick, disgusting, and profoundly unamerican. The general manager of that plant should be forced to swim in that f**king creek for several hours before being fired, tarred, feathered, and run out of the United States hog-tied to a rail.

Hal; I agree with everyone here, the management of that plant should plan on a long trip to the grey bar motel. Along with a huge fine to the company. Maybe some lawyers, on the blog and help me with this, but I always thought in cases like this there are actually 2 crimes involved. The first is the dumping, which may have just a fine. The second is more than 1 person had to conspire to commit the dumping which is then conspiracy to commit a crime. The conspire to commit a crime can out weigh the dumping and may have some serious jail time. Like lying to a Federal Agent will get you jail time, even it the original offense doesn't. I always thought animal blood was dried and used in fertilizer, so they are also wasting stock holder money. What happened to everything is used but the squeal. Bunch of bozos (with apologies to clowns everywhere).

Finally; :"FISH WE CAN EAT"??? Many of the former industrial states and rust belt states have large amounts of PCB and mercury in the mud on stream and river bottoms. Most have warnings in your yearly regulation handout to eat wild fish only 2 times a month and trim fat carefully before cooking. Catch and release is a good idea for more than just the sport.

This is far worse than just the CWA. They're dumping blood into a creek regardless of whether it is protected by the CWA it is just a plain issue of health. Blood carries all kinds of diseases, pathogens, ect... Not to long ago Mexico and most of the world dealt with the Swine flu epidemic which was arguably overblown. Regardless this is a serious health violation and the EPA hangs people and businesses for a whole lot less. Simply disgusting and idiotic!

The owners and managers of this plant are criminals in my book. Unfortunately they will pay a modest fine, fix the problem and move on.

Chad, I just signed in to say the same thing. That pig blood isn't just pig blood. Commercial livestock is fed a whole array of drugs, antibiotics, etc. that are retained in the bloodstream.

And Walt, even if it was just organic matter, organic matter in high concentrations (like what is seen here)can have huge effects on the ecology of a stream.

I will be the first to admit I am not a environmental lawyer but I have followed the wording clarification and am pretty sure this is covered. If I am mistaken we are in a world of trouble

This is a horrible situation which cries out for significant punishment of those responsible and clean-up actions. I suspect that federal laws, whether under CWA or some other statutory framework, are applicable in this situation. If not, then Texas is failing miserably by not enacting their own laws governing such conduct.

Sometimes limitations on the power of the federal government, as exemplified by the ruling that the CWA applies only to navigable waters because that is the constitutional limit of federal power, mean that states must pick up slack. It may also result in some situations that we do not like - but the exceptions should not be used to destroy the larger principle.

The attitude that limitations on the federal government are laughable concerns me more than this one particular incident of environmental malfeasance.

It amazes me that no concerned locals caught this act. A meat packing plant is inspected by state and federal workers. It just goes to show you that no matter how many rules, regulations and laws there are, criminals break them. The plant has been there for 50 years it can't have been run like that for all that time. Some public officials must have been bribed for that plant to have been run like that for any amount of time. Even in Chicago the pols know better than this. A bunch of people should be in trouble for this violation, including the officials who should have caught it.

If the slaughterhouse knowingly dropped raw waste into their pipeline to the river, there need to be consequences.

Shut them down!

Tony, please site an example of a regulation you'd like to repeal. I always hear this constant blather about "too much regulation". But whenever you look at the details it's always something like dumping pig blood that they want to deregulate.

I am an advocate for "balance" between environmental protection and industrial expansion. We need both. However, I would say this crosses the line into unnecessarily harming the river system. Yes, it is biological, but that that's a lot of it! Too-large of a concentration of anything of almost any natural or biological agent could pose a threat. I'm not sure what the best way for disposing of such waste would be, but I'm sure there is something better than dumping it into a creek, even if I do have to pay $ 0.50 more per pound on my pork chops.

square peg, Maybe I should clarify. (refer to my first post) I do not want to deregulate any discharge of industrial, chemical, pathogenic, thermal, nuclear, or biochemical effluents into public waters, "navigable" or "non-navigable". Surely, this company is in violation of some NPDES regulation and should suffer the consequences for such a blatant disregard of public and environmental health. Please refer to your states administrative code and recommended standards for waste water discharges for examples of regs that Im positive this company is in violation of at least one if not several. Im just saying, lets enforce the ones that are already in the books.

Yes it looks bad but do remember that its organic matter, not chemical, it will be deluted by water as it flows along and will be gone before it reaches anyones well water or swimming hole. I'm sure there are many other companies who dump really bad toxins who deserve the attention more.