KUHNI
PLANT • Juab County
commissioners fielded complaints
from residents about noxious odors
from concerned residents at last
week's meeting.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
How many times, Mills and Levan residents asked
commissioners, will John Kuhni Sons (JKS) get their hands
slapped before they have permitting jerked or are forced
to comply with stipulations imposed by a conditional use
permit?
Commissioner Robert Steele said he knows that JKS
can operate an odor- and bio-hazard-free animal rendering
facility in Juab County because he saw a much larger
plant operating without those problems in Boston, MA.
"The plant we saw," said Steele, "was three times
bigger than Kuhni's. We know they can do it if they will
do it."
The plant's trucks would haul the dead animal
carcasses into the plant, a positive air control facility
which did not let out the smell of the processing, and
then the trucks would be washed out before leaving the
inside of the facility.
Everything that came from the animal was used and
there was no material left at the end of processing as
there appears to be at the East Juab facility.
Margaret Pace, a nearby neighbor of the Kuhni
plant, said she is dissatisfied with the performance of
the facility operators to date.
"The place reeks," said Pace.
She said she had to wait for a train to cross the
road near the facility and the smell was over-powering.
The doors of the facility are left open which affects the
positive air flow by making it so that it doesn't
function properly.
"I have also lost two calves," said Pace.
She questioned if their deaths were caused by
diseased animals brought to the facility. It was a fact,
she said, that dead animal juices were dripping from
delivery trucks onto the roads.
Six residents from the Mills area and from Levan
attended county commission meeting to find out what
commissioners planned for making certain that the plant
met the strict conditional use permit stipulations set by
the county before construction of the facility.
Rose Godeck said she had passed some of the trucks
used by Kuhni animal rendering facility as they traveled
to and from Provo.
"We have seen stuff dripping from the trucks," said
Godeck.
She said she had grown up near an animal rendering
facility when she was a child. She did not like that
situation and did not want to spend her retirement years
in a similar fashion.
Nevertheless, she had smelled that same odor, and
recognized it from past experience, issuing from JKS.
Steele said the county did have control over the
odor which had been found coming from the plant but, some
of the issues raised by the residents could not be
enforced by the county since the state had issued those
permits and some issues were covered by state rather than
county law.
"The state worked with them on the waste-water
permitting," said Neil Cook, commission chairman. "They
(Kuhni's) are currently hauling their waste water to
Provo. They are working with the state division of water
quality."
The rules for hauling dead animals on the highways
were also set by the state.
Cook said commissioners were aware of the three
major violations which had occurred at the plant since
opening. In each case, the problems had been addressed by
the county and the state.
The first violation was the odor emanating from the
plant, said Cook. Two letters were sent, under direction
of the commission, by the county attorney warning Kevin
Kuhni, one of the owners, that the odor must be prevented
and could not be allowed to continue.
The second violation was when animal processing
waste was dumped into open pits. A letter was also sent
from the commission for that violation. In addition, the
state was contacted and samples were gathered by the
health department.
The third violation occurred, he said, was when a
holding tank allowed waste-water to overflow into a
ditch. That was reported by Kuhni's to the state and
samples were taken of material.
"I have visited with Kevin Kuhni," said Cook. "He
said they (the rendering facility) got off on the wrong
foot. He assured me that the violations would not occur
again."
The overflow of the storage tank will not occur
again, said Cook, because the owner has brought a 10,000
to 12,000 gallon tank to the site which will be kept
there, in addition to the original 6,000 gallon tank.
"All we can do is watch," said Cook. "We will hold
their feet to the fire."
Cook said that the trenches where the waste ended
up being dumped during the second violation were
originally dug as trenches for the percolation testing
done on the site prior to construction.
The sheriff's office, the county attorney, the
county health department, and Glenn Greenhalgh, county
planning commission director, were all aware of the
violations which had occurred.
All would be keeping an eye on the facility.
Levan residents said, that in this time of Mad Cow
Disease, they were concerned about the biological hazards
which occurred when the rules were not followed. Those
hazards could create dangers for the public as well as
for cattle.
Cook said the commission could look past some
start-up problems but would not tolerate continued
violations. If they occurred, the commission did have
authority to revoke the business license of the
facility.
"We have in our hands a much stricter ordinance
than the one the county has (which would deal with
businesses such as rendering facilities) that Provo
adopted," said Cook. "We are not trying to brush you
aside."
Steele said he would be willing to contact the
state and to talk to Bruce Hall, county health department
director.
"It would also behoove you people to write to the
state (health department and the department of water
quality) and tell them exactly what you have seen and
what you would like to see happen," said Steele.
Cook, Steele and Val Jones, commissioner, have all
been to the site on several occasions recently. They had,
independently, visited to look over the property and to
see if the odor was continuing.
"We are not going to take continued violations,"
said Jones. "We are not going to stand here and stammer
around about it. We may end up in court, but we will do
what has to be done."
