Council tables proposal to raise daily wastewater penalties for Actis Nutrition after extended debate

Norfolk City Council on July 24, 2025, voted to table consideration of a revised interim wastewater discharge permit for Actis Nutrition (formerly Milk Specialties) after a multi-hour discussion over proposed daily penalties, monitoring differences and how to reduce odors affecting nearby neighborhoods.

City staff presented the amended permit and said it would increase the daily penalty for exceeding permit limits for BOD, TSS and TKN from $1,000 per day to $20,000 per day and would tighten language defining a "slug discharge" (an exceedance above the permitted loading). "Beginning back in October, the permanent limit was set at 8,000 lbs a day at BOD," staff member Steve told the council, adding that the city had recorded about 284 permit violations since the interim permit went into effect and that the plant experienced a 10–11 day period in early July with daily BOD loads up to 15,000 lbs.

Representatives for Actis Nutrition pushed back on the scale of the fines and on some of the test results. "I spent over $5 million worth of capital and we continue," said Zoran Zerbeck, identified as the company's West Coast operations manager, arguing the business needs time to invest in treatment and that extreme fines could threaten payroll and local jobs. Plant engineer Desmond Fielding described the technical reasons loads vary and the challenges of sudden power outages and storms: "Sometimes the tank will turn and we will get different readings...it just happens where it wasn't necessarily that we have an offset." Rayback, who identified himself as a vice president of operations, said full backup generation and other solutions are not immediately feasible and urged a workable middle ground.

Council members, plant staff and the city laboratory manager, Rob, discussed discrepancies between the company's internal and third-party lab results and the city's accredited lab. "We are an accredited EPA lab; we run double tests on everything in our facility," Rob said, describing chain-of-custody and testing methods the city uses. City staff acknowledged measurement differences and suggested building a percent-based tolerance so incidental overages would not immediately trigger the maximum penalty. Staff also outlined short- and long-term engineering options: a membrane treatment system that could be installed in 6–9 months and a more comprehensive plant expansion that could take about 16 months, but both depend on power capacity and funding.

Several council members emphasized the public-complaint timeline and local odor impacts. "I get calls daily about the smell," one council member said, noting reports from multiple neighborhoods. City staff called for immediate, reliable notifications when Actis experiences an anomaly so the city can respond and adjust plant operations; company representatives said they had recently designated a point of contact and were stepping up communication.

After debate about thresholds (8,000 lb daily average, 9,000 lb temporary threshold used in July), accuracy of testing methods, and the balance between penalizing noncompliance and allowing a company time to implement fixes, the council voted to table the item and directed staff to meet with Actis and an independent third party to seek negotiated, technical amendments and return in two weeks with potential language changes.

The council's action pauses an immediate implementation of the higher daily fines while setting a firm timeline for city staff, the company and outside technical advisers to pursue a compromise on monitoring, tolerance bands and targeted penalties for true slug events. The next council meeting is expected to receive a staff recommendation informed by the technical meeting.