Should an animal rendering plant expand in Stanislaus County? Opposition cites odors
Stanislaus County planners are scheduled Thursday evening to consider a proposed expansion of an animal rendering plant on South Carpenter Road.
Darling Ingredients wants to expand the plant operation by 200,000 pounds per day and add some facilities to the 74-acre site.
County planning staff is recommending approval for expanding the rendering plant, which is one of three in the Central Valley permitted to receive animal carcasses from the agriculture industry.
Darling Ingredients receives beef and poultry remains from farmers, slaughterhouses and livestock producers and converts the material into products for animal feed, fertilizers and diesel refineries, a county staff report says.
The rendering plant is in an outlying area on South Carpenter Road, about a 13-mile drive south of Modesto. The plant on South Carpenter, near Harding Road, has been in operation since before 1969.
The expansion would include a 2,160-square-foot loading structure, a boiler room addition, a 23,300-square-foot building and exterior equipment.
Darling Ingredients, based in Irving, Texas, said in 2020 it would close a meat rendering plant in Fresno that generated odor complaints for decades. According to The Fresno Bee, the company considered moving that plant to an out-of-the-way location in rural Fresno County, but instead agreed to shut it down by the end of 2023, as part of a court settlement with a citizens group.
Company officials said two years ago that operations could be expanded in other locations with closure of the Fresno plant. Darling Ingredients did not return phone messages Wednesday, but county staff understood the plant expansion in Stanislaus County would take on some work from the Fresno facility.
Modesto attorney George Petrulakis, representing the applicant, said it makes sense to expand the plant in a lightly populated area of the county. “They have been operating there for decades,” Petrulakis said. “It’s an ideal place for something like this. It provides a necessary service for the dairies, the cattle ranches and poultry farms we have here.”
The county report says there are some homes scattered around the Carpenter Road plant. The county received a letter signed by 29 individuals opposing the expansion, citing environmental and health concerns.
The letter refers to odors, air pollutants, water contamination and bacterial infections affecting nearby residents. Another claim is that land around the facility is infused with blood and waste products.
Angela Freitas, county director of planning and community development, said Wednesday the people signing the letter did not include their home addresses. A review of property records did not match the names with properties near the Carpenter Road plant, Freitas added.
A person who signed the letter and also contacted The Fresno Bee about the proposed plant expansion in Stanislaus County did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Modesto Bee.
“The company is regulated by state agencies for air and water,” Freitas said. “We have no indication that Darling Ingredients is in violation of terms of their permits.”
Freitas said the Carpenter Road plant is a legal nonconforming use with a history of complying with regulations. A lack of complaints from nearby property owners is another reason for recommending approval of the expansion, Freitas said.
According to the county staff report, the rendering plant provides a vital service to the agriculture industry. Loss of the plant would require livestock producers and meat-packing plants to find alternatives for disposal of beef and poultry remains, including disposal in landfills.
Relocation of the plant to an industrial zone would put the operation in a more populated area, exposing people to strong odors, the report says.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District received a 2018 complaint for odor and smoke emanating from the Carpenter Road plant, according to the county.
Odors and air quality violations
From 2018 to 2021, a few air-quality violations were documented at the plant, including failure to operate equipment that reduces hazardous air pollutants and failure to submit an annual compliance certification on time. In two other violations, the facility failed to record temperature readings and did not operate a system to control odors.
The county report says the regulatory violations have been resolved.
The county acknowledges that unpleasant odors from tallow plants are inevitable. After making several visits to the Carpenter Road site this year, planning staff concluded: “Odor detected from Carpenter Road has ranged from none to a noticeable smell detected up to three quarters of a mile away from the plant.”
County staff also paid a visit during the heat wave last week, when the plant took in more decaying animal carcasses due to the triple-digit heat. According to the report, no smells were detected at different locations around the facility. But a heavy “processing” odor was detected a half-mile south of the facility.
The Stanislaus County Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the basement chamber of Tenth Street Place, at 1010 10th St., Modesto.
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
