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.

Pat Kranz, Hormel Plant Manager and Mark Carlstrom with Hormel were present to request an extension in their current Wastewater Discharge Agreement compliance date at the meeting. The date for compliance currently goes into effect on January 1st. The city has a compliance date with the DNR for July 1st. They 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. 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. 

Also at the meeting several zoning items were given to the council with no action. These have already been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and are being brought to council as recommendations. In January the council will proceed with public hearings and approvals.