Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Wednesday a $3 million state settlement with Tyson Farms, Inc. over the 2019 wastewater spill in the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.

The settlement agreement, filed in the Circuit Court of Walker County, brings an end to litigation filed by the state against Tyson in April of 2020 in which the state alleged that Tyson illegally discharged thousands of gallons of partially treated wastewater into the waters of the state in May and June of 2019.

The settlement, valued at $3,025,000, directs money to the affected communities for specific projects and mandates that Tyson take steps to sufficiently mitigate against the possibility of future harm.

The primary provisions of the settlement are as follows:

• Tyson will place $1.5 million into a trust for the benefit of the affected Walker and Cullman County communities. The trust will be administered by a five-member committee of local residents to be named by the Attorney General’s Office.
• Tyson will pay restitution and a civil penalty to the State of Alabama, as prescribed by law—$650,000 in restitution to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) and a $350,000 civil penalty to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).
• Tyson will invest $500,000 to increase public access to the Mulberry Fork. ADCNR will oversee the use of these funds to construct up to four new public access points in Walker and Cullman Counties so that recreational paddlers and boaters can more easily enjoy the Mulberry and Sipsey Forks of the Black Warrior River.
• Tyson will fund a $25,000 grant to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Alabama Water Watch, a non-profit organization, to be used for the benefit of training citizens of Walker and Cullman Counties to monitor water quality conditions and trends of their local water bodies.
• Tyson will take all reasonable and appropriate steps to address and remediate the causes and impacts from the 2019 wastewater spill.
• Tyson will comply with the terms of its environmental permit and submit engineering reports to ADEM to ensure future permit compliance.

The Attorney General’s Office forfeited attorneys’ fees and any additional payments to the state in favor of maximizing compensation to the impacted communities.

Upon filing the settlement agreement, Attorney General Marshall remarked, “I am pleased to finally be able to tell the communities of the Mulberry and Sipsey Forks that the state has resolved this matter. Though my Office was ready to go to trial, I am convinced that this agreement prioritizes the concerns that I heard from locals and gets money into the right hands quickly.”

The Black Warrior Riverkeeper said it had hoped for a larger fine against Tyson for the fish kill.

“The state of Alabama’s $3 million settlement with Tyson over the June 2019 wastewater spill at their Hanceville rendering plant and the resulting Mulberry Fork fish kill is certainly a better outcome than ADEM could have arrived at on their own,” the group said in a statement. “However, it was our hope that Tyson would be fined a minimum of $10 million, with the majority of the money going toward restoration and conservation of the resource most affected by this tragedy: the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River. While it remains to be seen what the $1.5M will be spent on in Cullman and Walker counties, no portion of that amount can possibly provide adequate retribution for the river and its inhabitants. As the watchdog for the river, we should have been consulted regarding adequate compensation for the river and more meaningful accountability for Tyson, one of the river’s largest polluters. Black Warrior Riverkeeper will continue to keep watch over Tyson’s operations and push for more stringent enforcement of environmental laws in Alabama.”

The settlement agreement takes the form of a consent decree, meaning that the Walker County Circuit Court will maintain jurisdiction over the matter, ensuring that its terms are met. The state’s resolution of its case does not bar private suits against Tyson from proceeding.