The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association chose American Proteins, Hanceville, Ala., as the winner of its 2004 Clean Water Award in the full treatment category. Honorable mention went to Tyson Foods, Union City, Tenn. The Clean Water Award recognizes outstanding water treatment facilities in the poultry industry. The full treatment category covers facilities that fully reclamate their wastewater prior to discharge into a receiving water or final land application system. The award was presented March 10 at the association's Environmental Management Seminar in Birmingham, Ala.
     First and foremost, the Hanceville Division is the largest poultry recycling facility in the world, making valuable feed components from inedible poultry. The company has continually improved its wastewater treatment system over the years to the point it now achieves significant denitrification, even though it is not required to do so. To ensure compliance, the facility has invested in both capital improvements — a cover over the anaerobic lagoon to allow capture and re-use of biogas being the most recent example —and in operator training, with most operators certified. The facility also employs an extensive water recycling program, minimizing its discharge.
     American Proteins received an honorable mention in last year's Clean Water Award competition. The company also was honored by Alabama's Water Environmental Association in 2001 with an Excellence in Industrial Wastewater Treatment Award.
     The Clean Water Award Review Committee chose American Proteins as the winner after an extensive review and site visits to the semifinalists. The committee members are industry or environmental professionals who represent various aspects of the poultry industry and the regulatory community. Members of the committee are: Charles Horn, P.E.; James Walsh, Georgia Tech; and Terrence O'Keefe, Watt Publishing.