SALISBURY, MARYLAND — Maryland environment officials on Wednesday, Sept. 9, took public comment at Wor-Wic Community College, Guerrieri Hall 101, on a draft state discharge permit that would let Perdue AgriBusiness LLC send as much as 1 million gallons a day of treated wastewater to Peggy Branch from the plant at 6906 Zion Church Road.

The Maryland Department of the Environment's published notice for state permit 21DP0359 (NPDES MD0000060) says Perdue applied to discharge an average of 175,000 gallons per day of treated process water from a producer of commercial poultry products, poultry feed, and soybean products, plus noncontact cooling water and sanitary wastewater, to Peggy Branch, a Use I tributary that flows to Johnson Pond and the Wicomico River. The fact sheet for the draft says the current permitted average daily flow limit is 170,000 gallons a day, and that Perdue wants that raised to as much as 1 million gallons a day. Average flow under the current permit, including flows formerly sent to spray irrigation, is 205,000 gallons a day. The fact sheet says Perdue confirmed it had ceased spray irrigation as of November 2023. The draft drops those outfalls and adds groundwater monitoring, biomonitoring, and PFAS reporting.

The same notice sets a total PFAS annual maximum of 0.0666 pounds and non-detectable levels for PFOS and PFOA. Those PFOS and PFOA limits would take effect 24 months after the permit's effective date. Until then, a detection is an action-level exceedance that requires corrective action. Ammonia monthly-average limits would be enforced as an annual average until the start of calendar year 2031. MDE calculated an environmental-justice score of 36.1 for the facility.

Neighbors who spoke Wednesday, as reported by The Banner and WMDT, tied the expansion to an ongoing federal class-action case, Chaney et al. v. Perdue Farms Inc. et al., No. 1:24-cv-02975, filed Oct. 11, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Maryland. The suit alleges PFAS from the Zion Church Road plant contaminated nearby wells. The Banner reported that Perdue sued firefighter-foam makers 3M and Johnson Controls. MDE has said it is investigating.

MDE spokesman Jay Apperson, in a statement to the Banner, called the draft “more restrictive” than the current permit.

“We remain committed to protecting this community's drinking water and natural waterways under state and federal law. This draft water discharge permit does not change our approach,” Apperson said.

Perdue, in a statement to WMDT, said the hearing is part of the state's standard review of a wastewater-treatment expansion “separate from the ongoing PFAS site investigation,” and that the company installed PFAS treatment at the plant in 2025.

Roger Truitt, an environmental consultant working with Brockstedt Mandalas Federico, the firm representing the Chaney plaintiffs, told the Banner that the draft would regulate water coming out of the pipe while “turning a blind eye” to seepage of forever chemicals into groundwater.

MDE's published hearing notice, printed in The Daily Times on Aug. 10 and 17, said written comments were due no later than 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, to Jonathan Rice, chief of the Industrial and General Permits Division, 1800 Washington Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21230-1708, or jonathan.rice [at] maryland.gov. The department's NPDES public-meetings page still lists that notice and the Sept. 9 hearing. After Wednesday's hearing, the Banner and WMDT reported that MDE officials said comments would be accepted until Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. The application, draft permit, and fact sheet are on MDE's wastewater portal under state number 21DP0359.