The parent company of a Greenville manufacturer and its president and owner have pleaded guilty in federal court to knowingly discharging acidic water into the Souhegan River, with sentencing set for June 23.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire, Old Dutch Mustard Co., d/b/a Pilgrim Foods, Inc., along with company president Charles Santich, 59, of New York, pleaded guilty to knowing discharge of a pollutant without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act. The New York-based company has a manufacturing plan in Greenville, Pilgrim Foods, where it manufactures vinegar and mustard products.  The process generates acidic wastewater, and stormwater flows through the property, including an outdoor area where product is stored.

According to the the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both the wastewater and stormwater at the site become acidic and are categorized as a pollutant, and the company did not have the necessary permits to discharge that wastewater or stormwater into the environment. Old Dutch Mustard was required to store the polluted water in tanks, and haul the wastewater off-site to a treatment plant.

The Clean Water Act prohibits discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters, unless with the issuance of a national permit. According to the press release, Old Dutch Mustard has been under multiple enforcement actions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s Department of Environmental Services, as well as the state’s attorney general, dating back to the 1980s.

In 2016, the Hillsborough County Superior Court approved a consent decree between the state and Old Dutch Mustard for violations of the state’s Water Pollution and Waste Disposal Act and Hazardous Waste Management Act at the Greenville facility, resulting in required corrective actions and a civil penalty of $949,000, according to a previous state Department of Justice release. At that time, the state had documented more than 90 instances between 2013 and 2016 where the pH in a stream that runs on the plant’s property and feeds the Souhegan was lower, or more acidic, than allowed by state law. It was also found that Pilgrim Foods had released hazardous wastes, in the form of phosphoric acid and sodium hydroxide, into the stream, impacting the ability for the stream to host aquatic life.

“As a result of these actions, EPA and NHDES have required continuous monitoring of an unnamed brook that flows underneath and in front of the facility, eventually flowing into the Souhegan River,” the release states. “The Souhegan River is one of 19 New Hampshire rivers that the State of New Hampshire has designated as an important natural resource.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in 2015, Santich hired an excavation company to bury a pipe from the facility to discharge the acidic wastewater and stormwater off the property and in the general direction of the Souhegan River, traveling along a former railroad bed. The discharge point of the pipe was downstream of the environmental monitoring required by the EPA and the state, related to previous enforcement actions.

“Santich directed Old Dutch Mustard employees to repeatedly pump acidic wastewater and stormwater through the underground pipe to the abandoned railroad bed. Santich also directed employees to not tell anyone about the pipe,” the release states.

A state DES inspector first noticed a potential issue in May 2023, after discovering wastewater that had both low pH and a vinegar smell flowing from a man-made ditch at the top of the hill on the Pilgrim Foods property, flowing into the river. In August of that year, EPA agents executed a search warrant of the facility, and observed a vinegar-smelling liquid discharging from the end of an underground pipe into the ditch, with a pH level of 3.6. Dye was added to the discharge at the underground pipe to determine where it flowed, and it was determined that it discharged from the underground pipe at the top of the hill, and along the drainage ditch into the river.