Court orders Smithfield to do more groundwater evaluation

A U.S. District Court judge in North Carolina has directed Smithfield Foods to proceed with an evaluation of potential groundwater contamination from swine waste at eleven hog facilities in the state, according to court documents. Judge Malcolm Howard ruled in favor of plaintiffs Waterkeeper Alliance and Sound Rivers, which had asked the court to order Smithfield’s Murphy-Brown unit to allow a consultant to conduct further data collection under terms of a 2006 consent decree.