NAPOLEON, OH—In August 2024, NELC attorneys Chuck Caldart and Josh Kratka, accompanied by NELC paralegal Lauren Justice and wastewater engineering consultant Charles Bott, conducted a two-day site visit to Campbell Soup Supply Company’s processing plant in Napoleon, Ohio.
This soup, beverage, and sauce production facility is Campbell Soup’s largest, and produces many of the staples found on grocery shelves throughout the country. However, Campbell’s own self-reported compliance data shows years of persistent, sometimes egregious violations of the facility’s Clean Water Act permit. Facility processes such as canning and fruit and vegetable washing and blending, together with an aging and ineffective wastewater treatment plant, have combined to produce effluent violations for numerous pollutants, including E. coli bacteria, nitrogen, oil and grease, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and phosphorus—the same phosphorus that has long afflicted the Maumee River and Lake Erie, where toxic algae, fed by phosphorus-driven eutrophication, bloom each summer.
To its credit, Campbell’s has been a willing participant in ongoing settlement discussions, both with NELC and with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who have filed a companion suit against the company.
With the goal of understanding each component of the current wastewater treatment system and of the proposed wastewater treatment upgrades, and to get a sense of the layout of the plant and its food production processes, the NELC team, along with attorneys and technical staff from DOJ/EPA, joined attorneys, engineers, and management staff from Campbell’s for two days of site inspections and technical discussions during the heat of late summer.
After an informative and productive visit, NELC staff were struck by the incredible efficiency, cleanliness, and reliability of the production side of the facility. Canning occurs at high speeds, ideal temperatures are precisely held, and any setbacks or machinery errors are swiftly corrected.
“It was not simply these qualities that so impressed us,” remarked NELC’s Lauren Justice, “but also their juxtaposition with the state of the wastewater treatment facility. It was clear to us that Campbell Soup is capable of innovative and streamlined industry, but had cho- sen for too long not to bring these qualities to bear on its wastewater treatment.”
An important goal of the NELC lawsuit will be to ensure that Campbell’s invests in effective and reliable technology and infrastructure for the side of its operations that governs what the facility discharges to the aquatic environment. That side may not produce marketable products, but it does affect the lives of the fishers, boaters, hikers, conservationists, and other Ohioans who use and enjoy the Maumee River and Lake Erie.
