Tyson Foods Chicken Processing Facility

Berlin, Md.

Before consulting with Ocean Arks International and the John Todd Ecological Design team in 2001, the Maryland Environmental Protection Agency levied several fines against Tyson’s poultry processing facility in Berlin, Maryland. Effluent from the Tyson lagoon was frequently out of compliance with MD-EPA standards and was unfit to discharge into Chincoteague Bay, a local fishing and shellfishing area.

With the help of John Todd’s Aqua-Restorers, Tyson Foods Inc. turned their sludge filled lagoon into a thriving ecosystem and compliant wastewater treatment site. Aqua-Restorers were installed to work in collaboration with existing traditional treatment elements. The result was a 95% reduction of contaminants, 70% reduction in energy use, 20% reduction in sludge production, and a discharge that complied with Maryland’s open water effluent parameters.

In this case, 25,000 native plants were chosen to create a balanced and complex aquatic ecosystem to provide habitat for a variety of microbial communities, all of which perform a unique function in the waste treatment process. Flotation, aeration and water circulation are used to accelerate the ecosystem’s natural ability to clean water. Operation and maintenance of the Restorers is simple and low in cost. Their ecological diversity results in a highly resilient system— one that is able to handle sudden overloads better than traditional systems. More recently, several local plants and turtles have migrated to the lagoon, creating a unique self-organizing eco-system.