WASHINGTON – The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered Foster Farms to stop all discharges of unauthorized pollutants from the company’s wastewater lagoon to a tributary of Leatherman Creek.

The EPA inspected the Foster Farms Athens Hatchery on Jan. 26. The inspection revealed discharges of pollutants into the tributary. Leatherman Creek drains into Black Creek Bayou, which drains into the Red River. The chicken hatchery is two miles east of Athens in Claiborne Parish.

Foster Farms must submit to EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality a certified summary, including photographs that show the discharges have been stopped.