Cavel plant back to slaughter?

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DeKALB - Cavel International may be back in business, at least temporarily, after a federal appeals court on Tuesday came to a split decision on whether federal inspections of horse meat for human consumption should be allowed. A court ruling last month stopped the inspections, effectively shutting down operations at Cavel, the only U.S. facility that was still slaughtering horses for human consumption overseas. Because the appeals court could not reach a decision, Cavel could temporarily resume operations while its appeal is being heard by the court. Cavel manager Jim Tucker declined to comment on the ruling on Wednesday. If the facility resumes operations, the DeKalb Sanitary District would like to be forewarned, district Director Mike Zima said, although Cavel reportedly would not be discharging wastewater to the district. Cavel has been embroiled in a lengthy standoff with the district, which fined the company more than $25,000 last year for exceeding the amount of pollutants in its wastewater. Zima said a new administrative order and a $55,000 fine were recently sent for more violations of the company's wastewater permit. &#8220We'll have to see what happens,” Zima said. &#8220We did ask Jim Tucker to give us 48 hours' notice before they do resume operations, just so we're in the loop.” As of Wednesday morning, Zima said he has not heard from Tucker. If slaughter at the plant resumes, Zima said, the company will not be discharging more wastewater into the sewer system, at least not at first. He said Cavel physically disconnected its discharge pipe from the sanitary system last week, and said company officials told him they would have wastewater trucked out to other treatment facilities until Cavel's own filtration system can bring the pollutants down to permitted levels. &#8220This works for the sanitary district in that respect,” Zima said. &#8220From the district's perspective, it's just a matter of the fines. They're not able to attain compliance with the permit we issued them, so they would truck the waste away until such time as they could bring their numbers into compliance.” At about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, men in white jumpsuits handling a large hose could be seen working at the plant at 108 Harvestore Drive, but there appeared to be no activity there just two hours later. A bill to ban horse slaughter for human consumption passed the Illinois House last month. It is now in committee in the Senate. A bill pending in Congress also would have the same effect. Dana Herra can be reached at dherra@daily-chronicle.com.