FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENRD

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, (202) 514-2007

2006 TDD (202) 514-1888
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

Conagra Foods Sentenced for Violating

the Clean Water Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. - ConAgra Foods, Inc., the owner and operator of a food
ingredient and flour mill in Hastings, Minnesota, was sentenced for violating the
Clean Water Act, the Department of Justice announced today. U.S. District Court
Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced ConAgra Foods, Inc., to pay a criminal fine of
$138,513 and provide $55,000 in community service to the National Park
Foundation as well as $55,000 in community service to the Friends of the
Mississippi River. ConAgra was also sentenced to pay $1,487 in restitution to the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

ConAgra Foods pleaded guilty to a one-count information on September 1, 2005,

alleging that between January 1998 and December 2003 it failed to report and
maintain documentation of temperature readings of non-contact cooling water
discharged from the Hasting facility as required by its National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System permit.

The information alleges that ConAgra Foods held a permit to discharge non-contact
cooling water, used in the facility to cool air compressors. This discharged water
flowed out of the facility, over bedrock into the Vermillion River, a tributary of the
Mississippi River.

By permit, the non-contact cooling water was not to exceed an average daily
temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit. During an inspection, it was determined that
readings which were higher than allowed by the permit were not transmitted to the
MPCA in required Discharge Monitoring Reports.

“Our ability to protect our Nation's rivers from the harmful effects of pollution
depends upon the honesty of facilities that receive discharge permits under the
Clean Water Act,” said David M. Uhlmann, Chief of the U.S. Department of
Justice's Environmental Crimes Section. “When companies fail to honor their legal
obligation to report discharges accurately, and seek to conceal Clean Water Act
violations, criminal prosecution is appropriate.”

The case was investigated by the Minneapolis Office of EPA’s Criminal

Investigation Division in coordination with the MPCA. The case was prosecuted by
Trial Attorney Jennifer Whitfield of the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S.
Department of Justice.

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