April 30,2014
A $50 million dollar expansion at the Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation facility will improve their 57 acre West Fresno plant adding 300 jobs to the 1000 person workforce already employed there.
Cargill, on the receiving edge of bad press here in the past, says the modernizing of the Fresno operation will improve its environmental footprint cutting air emissions,improving water quality and reducing odors.
Significantly the plant expansion calls for construction of a new 80,000 sf cold storage facility that would replace 87 diesel-powered refrigerated storage trailers at the plant improving air quality nearby. Additional environmental benefits include adding a new water wells that will replace two wells high in nitrates.
Changes planned at the plant will also reduce odors says a company report, specifically to how hides are processed. A new facility will be built. Also, instead of the company selling the hides to a firm in Modesto the hide work will be retained in Fresno says the company. That will add $2 million to the local tax base.
A county report says the plant, on the west edge of Fresno city has had no complaints about odors to date.The plant has ag land on one side and residential on the other.
The county is processing the environmental impact of the big project as a negative declaration meaning there are no serous issues.
The expansion will also affect the firm’s ground beef production operation tripling the building size from 22,400sf to 67,200sf.
Cargill is the nation’s largest privately held corporation based in Minnesota with 2013 revenues of $136.7 billion.
Cargill acquired the Fresno plant from Beef Packers Inc in 2006. In 2009 in two separate cases more than 800,000 pounds of ground beef were recalled because of concerns the meat might be linked to a salmonella outbreak.
Cargill’s plant location was cited in a LA Times story in recent days suggesting low income areas of Fresno like West Fresno were burdened by pollutants from the plant.
