MH farm cited for impacting Prestile
MARS HILL, Maine — J & D McCrum Farm has agreed to its manage its potato wastewater discharges and pay a $5,000 penalty after state regulators found problems that led to fungal growth in a nearby stream.
Wastewater from J & D McCrum Farm’s potato facility in Mars Hill flowed into a roadside ditch, pooled into a pond and then entered a tributary of the Prestile Stream, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, in its November enforcement report.
The farm, which operates a potato washing facility, violated its waste discharge license limits under Maine’s Protection and Improvement of Waters law, and left the stream failing its Class B quality standard, the DEP wrote. The agency said McCrum ended up discharging “malodorous waters causing extensive fungal growth.”
The DEP said McCrum has cleaned up the affected areas around the ditch, plugged a drain that used to carry wastewater and built a new concrete holding tank to transfer the waste waters to a licensed lagoon system.
McCrum has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1,000 to the state government and $4,000 to the Northern Maine Development Commission to help fund a wetland pilot project in southern Aroostook County, testing the use of sweet grass in wetland protection.
