A few clouds. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable..

A few clouds. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable.

Commonwealth Dairy at 66 Paul Road in Brattleboro.

Commonwealth Dairy at 66 Paul Road in Brattleboro.

BRATTLEBORO — Commonwealth Dairy is taking steps to better comply with wastewater permits.

On Tuesday, the Select Board authorized the company to go from 100,000 to 185,000 gallons per day. Public Works Director Dan Tyler recounted a time when the dairy experienced several instances of going over the local limits.

“Since then, they’ve really tightened up their operation, increased their training,” he said. “They were acquired by a different company, which really seems to have taken a proactive approach to wastewater. They’re just filling the gaps that were there, and they’ve really had a long run the last year of improved effluent quality without the increased treatment. There have been a couple of minor exceedances, but we’re confident that the increased treatment will solve a lot of those problems.”

Last year, the state of Vermont fined Commonwealth Dairy $25,000 for wastewater pretreatment discharge permit violations. Department of Environmental Conservation personnel visited the yogurt plant in 2017 and 2018 and observed a number of violations, including improper operation and maintenance, and reporting and training inadequacies, according to information from the DEC, a division of the Agency of Natural Resources. Additional violations occurred in 2019 and 2020, according to a notice from the state.

In addition to paying the fine, Commonwealth also agreed to retaining an engineer and wastewater consultant to evaluate the facility and provide a compliance plan to the DEC. The facility’s permit limits the volume and quality of wastewater discharged to the Brattleboro collection system to protect the wastewater treatment facility and ensure the discharge into the Connecticut River meets environmental standards.

Discharge permits are designed to make sure municipal wastewater treatment facilities can safely handle and treat wastewater, prevent interference with municipal operations, and prevent toxic pollutants from flowing into lakes, rivers and streams, according to DEC information.

Tyler said the overrun with the local system never caused the town to fall into noncompliance with its federal permit.

“There’s definitely some adverse effects on our side of things when they exceed,” he said.

The Brattleboro Department of Public Works supported Commonwealth’s request for higher allocation.

Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland said industrial discharge differs from that of residential.

“Industrial waste has a high biological oxygen demand,” he said. “And what that means is that if we were to discharge industrial waste from a commercial enterprise like Commonwealth directly into the Connecticut River, which is where our wastewater system ends up, it would deplete a significant quantity of the oxygen and it would lead to the killing of plant/animal species in the river, and obviously that’s something we want to avoid.”

Brattleboro has a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency that strictly regulates its effluent into the river, so it’s important for the town to monitor what’s being discharged into its system, Moreland said. The town is working on updating its ordinance to allow for industrial entities to be fined for exceeding permitted biological oxygen demand limits.

Commonwealth Dairy plans on keeping its BOD daily limit at 800 pounds, as the company will be improving its onsite treatment facility to allow it to treat the waste before it goes into the town’s system, Tyler said.

Last month, the Brattleboro Development Review Board provided site plan and local Act 250 approval to construct a moving bed biofilm reactor and suspended air flotation system to pretreat wastewater at Commonwealth’s facility at 66 Paul Road. The state also will need to sign off as part of its Act 250 review and permitting for wetlands and wastewater.

Sam Garland, director of facilities and project management at Commonwealth Dairy, said the multimillion-dollar project will allow the company to expand its production.

“The addition of the biologic treatment is really something that’s been insisted upon by the state of Vermont and the town to lighten the load, if you will, on the Brattleboro treatment plant,” he said. “It is a pretty monumental addition. ... Our request for the additional volume is so that we can grow our business and sort of amortize that investment over a larger business, keep producing more dairy products using Vermont milk.”

Garland said it’s a company point of pride to support agriculture, and the expanded treatment will make it easier for the town to process waste while adding more jobs at the plant.

Commonwealth Dairy was founded in 2009 by partners Tom Moffitt and Benjamin Johnson, along with German dairy giant Ehrmann AG. Using milk from Vermont cows, Commonwealth packaged yogurt for third-party sales and also designed its own line through the Green Mountain Creamery, including a line of Greek yogurt and Yo Yummy pouches for kids.

In 2019, Commonwealth Dairy was purchased by Lactalis, the world’s biggest dairy company, located in France, which also bought Stonyfield Yogurt in 2017.

BRATTLEBORO — A new wastewater treatment project at Commonwealth Dairy will meet several objectives.

Chris Mays is a general assignment reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer and Vermont News & Media.

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