Nicholas Meats hired Bassett Engineering (BE) to provide civil and environmental engineering services, which included surveying, land development, environmental permitting, waste treatment feasibility, and environmental site assessments. Over the years, Nicholas Meats expanded its plant multiple times, including a major plant expansion that increased the usable part of the plant site by several acres and added hundreds of parking spaces. BE designed facilities such as site grading, stormwater collection, detention and infiltration, domestic waste storage, drives, parking, and others to accommodate these changes.
Feasibility Study: The Waste Treatment Feasibility Study determined the cost-effectiveness of treating waste onsite to the point where the water could be reused in the plant, plus the feasibility of cogeneration using biogas.
Waste Treatment: Wastewater from the meat packing process is treated with a membrane bioreactor (MBR), denitrification filter, ozone, and reverse osmosis to make it clean enough to be reused throughout the packing plant. Digested residuals are dewatered so they could be stored through the winter, land applied, and potentially sold.
Cogeneration: Meat packing plant waste, residuals from the wastewater treatment processes, and potentially food waste from external sources, are fed to a thermophilic anaerobic digester. Piston engines burn digester gas to drive electricity generators. Electricity is used in the meat packing plant, with excess sold back to the grid. Waste heat from the exhaust and engine water jackets is used to heat the digester plus water used in the meat packing plant.
Stormwater Management: consisted of diverting off-site runoff; separate collection, detention, and infiltration of industrial stormwater and roof runoff, interception and diversion of groundwater from karst topography, and filling of sinkholes. Discharging to a surface pond that discharges to an adjacent creek. The parking lot accommodates single-loop tractor-trailer traffic through the building, plus single-axle vehicle and truck parking.
Sewage Facilities: Due to increased employment, sewage facilities’ flows exceeded OLDS capacity. BE designed and permitted new wastewater holding tanks to alleviate this issue.
BE obtained approvals throughout the project, including environmental permits and other necessary regulatory approvals:
- DEP Permits (in conjunction with Clinton County Conservation District and US Army Corps of Engineers)
- Chapter 102 NPDES Permit for Stormwater Discharge Associated with Construction Activities
- Chapter 102 Industrial NPDES Permit for Stormwater Discharge Associated with Industrial Activities
- Chapter 105 Joint Permit for Water Obstruction and Encroachment
- Component 2 Sewage Facilities Planning Module
- PennDOT Highway Occupancy Permit for entrance to the new employee parking lot
- Greene Township: Land Development Plan and Sewage Facilities Planning Module
