During public hearings about whether Wisconsin-based American Foods Group (AFG) should be allowed to establish an industrial-scale beef processing plant in Warren County, a wide range of concerns have been raised by nearby property owners. Although a primary object of concern has been truck traffic coming to and from the facility, other comments have touched on the facility’s potential impact on air and water quality in the surrounding area.

The Warren County Commission on June 8 voted to uphold an operating permit for the facility, which was originally awarded in April before being appealed. Here's a deeper look at concerns expressed by opponents, and how AFG says it will prevent each problem.

Traffic

The proposed site of the AFG facility is located outside Foristell along Veterans Memorial Parkway, intersecting with Archer Road, a county-owned gravel roadway. Archer Road homeowners and some Foristell residents worry that steady truck traffic will cause major inconveniences in their daily lives.

AFG says it is coordinating with county and state governments for public roadway construction around the facility. In fact, the Warren County Commission has already petitioned the Missouri Department of Transportation for financial assistance to construct an industrial road connecting Veterans Memorial Parkway west of Foristell to Highway T south of Foristell.

Kurt Daniels with Cochran Engineering, a firm working with AFG, presented some of the road design plans during a public hearing May 24.

“These are roadways we’re working with AFG and the county to design to minimize the traffic in this area,” Daniels said. He explained that new turn lanes are being planned on Veterans Memorial Parkway, along with a rebuilt railroad crossing for Archer Road.

Additionally, Vince Keady with AFG said the company and others are also petitioning St. Charles County to extend Interstate Drive, a Wentzville-area bypass road, westward to Highway T in order to provide industrial traffic with a way to avoid Foristell’s main roads and intersections.

Water management

Rural homeowners in the area near the AFG site also had important questions about how the facility will use and manage water. The facility is expected to use millions of gallons as part of its meat processing, and all that water has to come from somewhere and go somewhere.

On the supply side, area residents with well-fed water systems are worried the draw from AFG will drain the aquifer that supplies their wells.

But AFG’s Keady said the well that supplies their Warren County facility will be drilled 1,700 feet deep and have sealed sides past the depth of any residential wells, reaching a geologically separate aquifer and not affecting the water supply above it. The company has submitted multiple engineering reports to the county to support that claim.

“The reports we have is that there’s more than enough water at that depth, in a completely different aquifer,” Keady commented. “(Our well) will not impact future development or ... the existing residential.”

Residents also asked how AFG plans to dispose of the huge amount of wastewater the facility generates. Keady replied that AFG plans to finance a new sewer treatment plant, to be built and operated by the public water district that serves eastern Warren County, and located in Wright City at an existing lagoon site.

Odor

The potentially foul smell of cattle, manure, meat and blood also weigh heavily on opponents of the facility. AFG says it intends to build the facility with technology that have eliminated this concern from other facilities. This claim is backed up by local business owners and government officials who visited AFG’s most comparable facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

AFG Executive Vice President Jim Rathke explained that facilities use air scrubbers and technology called “regenerative thermal oxidation” (RTO) to remove odor pollution from the air.

“You first run it through the air scrubbing process, and then you run it through RTO, and the RTO will burn any other particulates that are in there. ... When you emit all that air out of the plant, it is completely odor free,” Rathke said.

Migrant workers

The meatpacking industry is notorious for its use of foreign migrant workers, who are often accused of being in the country illegally. Opponents asked how many of AFG’s 1,300 employees will be migrants.

Proponents of the Warren County plant responded that AFG has a reputation for thorough verification of its employees’ eligibility to work.

In addition, Rathke said the company doesn’t want to rely on migrant workers, and that’s exactly why they’re locating in an area with a growing local population. He said older meatpacking plants that chose to build far out into the country have to bring in migrants because there isn’t enough local workforce.

“That’s one of the main reasons we picked this site. ... There are over 2 million employable people within reasonable driving distance from this site,” Rathke said. “Our desire is to have everybody from this area be able to work at our facility.”