Mountaire offers new wells to nearby Millsboro homes

Mountaire Farms says it will install deeper wells at no cost to 88 properties near its Millsboro plant.
Wells serving many of these homes have been found to have high levels of nitrates.
Most of the properties are located just a couple of miles from Mountaire’s Millsboro plant and near the fields where they sprayed contaminated wastewater.
In a statement, Mountaire’s Executive Vice President of Processing Operations Mike Tirrell said the company will do what it can to keep the trust of its neighbors.
“For over 100 years, our company has made the communities where we live and work a top priority, and we take our neighbors’ concerns very seriously,” Tirrell said.
“We have cherished the trust of the Millsboro community for nearly two decades, and we will do everything necessary to keep that trust and continue being a good corporate neighbor for years to come.” Mountaire originally offered bottled water and filtration systems to residents whose wells were identified as being affected by groundwater contamination.
But last week, the company sent residents waivers for water softener systems, saying they agree to handle all costs associated with the system — even if something went wrong.
Those systems would discharge regenerated wastewater into their septic tanks.
Over the summer, Mountaire had an upset at its wastewater treatment facility that caused high levels of nitrogen and bacteria to remain in the effluent they sprayed onto nearby agricultural land.
In the long term, the company is upgrading its treatment system.

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