The Knoxville City Council denied a request by the Knoxville Hormel Foods plant for an extension to their current wastewater discharge agreement compliance date at their meeting Monday night.

Plant Manage Pat Kranz and Mark Carlstrom with Hormel were present to request an extension in their current Wastewater Discharge Agreement compliance date at the meeting. The deadline   is currently on January 1st. The city has a compliance date with the DNR for July 1st. Both parties have been made aware of this compliance date since 2018. The project will cost $1.7M and will be a reverse osmosis system to remove chloride from water. Their current lead time for parts is 20 weeks, making it impossible to meet the January compliance date, according to Hormel leadership. City Manager Heather Ussery says the deadline they gave was to protect city’s own required timeline

“The city gave the January 1st, 2025 date because in July of 2025 the city then has those regulations that are implemented by the DNR so we need to comply by those.”

After discussion, the council did not extend the compliance date and beginning in January Hormel will be fined for any limits over their permitted levels.