U.S. Poultry and Egg Association Announces 2025 Clean Water Awards

TUCKER, Ga. – The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) announced the recipients of the 2025 Clean Water Award: Tyson Foods in Danville, Va. and Perdue Foods in Lewiston, N.C.

This annual award honors poultry facilities that demonstrate exceptional performance in wastewater treatment, water reuse and overall sustainability. Winners were selected by a committee of industry engineers and university experts and recognized at USPOULTRY’s annual Environmental Management Seminar in September.

Awards are presented in two categories: pretreatment and full treatment. The pretreatment category covers facilities that partially treat their wastewater before discharging the effluent to a publicly owned treatment facility for further processing. The full treatment category includes facilities that treat wastewater according to their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, allowing treated effluent to be discharged into a receiving stream.

To qualify for the award, facilities must have at least two years of no significant noncompliance, Notices of Violation or any other type of enforcement action.

Tyson Foods is the recipient in the pretreatment category for its wastewater facility in Danville, Va. The facility received the award for its outstanding commitment to workforce development, technological innovation, community engagement and environmental responsibility, said USPOULTRY. Its comprehensive training and education programs ensure staff are highly skilled, licensed and prepared through both classroom and hands-on experiences, while its advanced supervisory control and data acquisition automation system streamlines operations, reduces human error and enhances efficiency, said the association.

Perdue Foods is the recipient in the full treatment category for its broiler processing facility in Lewiston, N.C. The facility, which processes 347,000 birds per day, treats an average of 2.4 million gallons of wastewater daily. The Lewiston Harvest Plant earned recognition for its groundbreaking sustainability initiatives that have set a new standard for environmental innovation, said USPOULTRY. In partnership with industry leaders, the facility covered two anaerobic lagoons at the end of 2022 to capture methane generated during wastewater treatment, converting it into renewable natural gas (RNG) that is injected into existing pipelines for customer use. In December 2024, the plant also commissioned an onsite carbon dioxide facility that purifies byproduct carbon dioxide (CO₂) from RNG production into food-grade liquid CO₂, supplying both internal and external applications. Together, these projects reduced greenhouse gas emissions at the facility by 99%, said the association.

An honorable mention with distinction in the pretreatment category was presented to Draper Valley Farms, Mount Vernon, Wash., and an honorable mention with distinction award in the full treatment category was presented to Pilgrim’s in Cold Spring, Minn.

“These facilities were chosen for this year’s Clean Water Awards because they demonstrate an exceptional commitment to innovation, sustainability and community stewardship,” said Jonathan Cade, Hy-Line International, and USPOULTRY chair. “From capturing and repurposing greenhouse gases to investing in advanced training and automation, they have set a new benchmark for operational excellence while protecting natural resources and strengthening their communities.”