DeVries Meats, Inc.

Devries Meats wanted to build an expansion onto their slaughterhouse. EGLE required them update their existing pond to meet construction standards and to increase the overall capacity to handle the additional wastewater.

The client didn’t have the capacity in their existing lagoon for the expansion and needed to increase the size and build it to specifications.

Environmental Resources Group, LLC (ERG), provided compliance and design services including the design and construction oversight of a wastewater storage pond for DeVries Meats, Inc. (DMI) in Coopersville, Michigan.

DMI operates under a Groundwater Discharge Permit (GDP) issued by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) which allows land application of the process wastewater at agronomic rates during restricted periods of the year. Following a facility expansion in 2015, MDEQ required the facility to increase the process wastewater storage volume and to reconstruct the existing holding pond to current MDEQ industrial process wastewater construction standards. The existing storage pond has a capacity of approximate 390,000 gallons and a footprint of 206 feet (ft.) x 128 ft., or a surface area of 36,368 square feet (SF).

ERG designed two wastewater holding ponds to contain the volume of process wastewater generated in a 12-month period for the facility when operating at full capacity. Each pond will have a volume of approximately 1.3 million gallons. The new pond which has approximately the same footprint of the existing pond, was constructed in summer of 2017. The existing pond will be reconstructed in 2018. State containment standards were achieved using geomembrane liners.

ERG designed the constructed pond depth in relation to surrounding grade to balance cut and fill volumes. The existing pond will be excavated approximately 8 feet below grade and approximately 5 feet above the native terrain. The new pond was excavated approximately 6.5 feet below grade with the total depth of 13 feet. ERG provided construction oversight services during the new pond construction to verify the quality of the subgrade, liners, and overall quality of the construction.

In addition, ERG worked with the local township to obtain land use permits and special zoning approval.