As work progresses on the Nicholas Meat Sustainable Resource Facility (SRF), people may be wondering why the Loganton, Pa., business is focusing on wastewater treatment and water reclamation first. The answer is simple – this focus will provide the most immediate and substantial improvements to the environment and the community.

“Focusing on the wastewater treatment and water reclamation portion of the SRF project allows Nicholas Meat to provide the greatest benefit to the community through improved air quality, lower truck traffic and reduced dependence of the aquifer,” said Brian Miller, Nicholas Meat Director of Sustainability. “Roughly 97 percent of our waste stream is water so we want to focus our efforts where they will make the most positive impact on the environment and our sustainability efforts.”

Food processing wastewater will be pumped from the meat packing plant to the SRF to undergo advanced treatment including biological denitrification, disinfection and reverse osmosis. This will enable Nicholas Meat to reuse up to 90 percent of the water within its operations.

Because the treated water will be reused, there will be fewer trucks hauling food processing residuals (FPR) from the meat processing facility to area farmland.

Miller noted that although the wastewater treatment/water reclamation system and the anaerobic digester system are highly integrated, flexibility was designed into the overall process to allow each system to operate independently if necessary. This flexibility allows the wastewater treatment/water reclamation system to come online sooner along with the greatest environmental benefits of the project.

To learn more about how Nicholas Meat will recycle its water, review the information brief that breaks down the process and explains how water may be reused after undergoing treatment.

Additional Construction Milestones

Crews have reached a few milestones at the SRF site recently. Most importantly, almost all pyritic shale has been removed from the site. The discovery of this unsuitable soil impacted the construction schedule as the shale has expansive properties and therefore cannot be used as a sub-base for roads, buildings and other structures. Now that this unsuitable soil is nearly all removed, Loganton residents can look forward to a significant reduction in construction truck traffic. We appreciate the patience the community extended to us as our contractor removed this unsuitable soil.

Also, two of the three retaining walls have been completed and the third wall is under construction. These retaining walls help provide level ground for placement of buildings and tanks. This month, workers will begin to construct the tank foundations in preparation for the arrival of the tanks this fall. To learn more about work that has been done at the SRF site, read the latest Nicholas Meat Quarterly Newsletter.