The largest cheese plant in Vermont has been fined by regulators for repeatedly violating its wastewater permit since 2022. Agri-Mark dairy in Middlebury, where most Cabot cheddar cheese is made, was fined $60,000 for the violations, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conserv ation. The facility violated its pretreatment permit 15 times, including by allowing excessive waste to flow to the Middlebury wastewater treatment plant, according to regulators. That municipal plant discharges treated wastewater into Otter Creek. Excessive amounts of industrial waste can upset the biological and chemical processes used to clean the wastewater, leading to the releases that can harm the environment. The fine also covered multiple monitoring and reporting violations. Emmalee Cherington, director of public works for Middlebury, said waste from the Cabot plant has gummed up the works at the treatment plant — literally. She recalled times when the plant needed to call in extra workers to “shovel the sludge” that was sticking to equipment. “It was pretty labor-intensive,” she said. Removing the cheesy gunk from the water also increased the plant’s spending on electricity and chemicals, she said. Things have gotten much better recently, however, and the plant has significantly improved its communication with the town when unexpected issues arise, she said. The award-winning Cabot cheese brand is made at plants in Cabot and Middlebury, as well as in New York State. In a statement, the company said it fully cooperated with the investigation. “We recognize the importance of this matter to our neighbors, our employees, and the broader community, and we sincerely appreciate their understanding as we worked toward a lasting solution,” the company said. Most large food-processing plants such as creameries and breweries are required to have systems to pretreat wastewater before sending it to municipal treatment plants, which often can’t handle large volumes of industrial waste. Rules around such permits in Vermont are strict and require regular testing and reporting. Those rules aren’t always observed, however. At the end of 2025, state regulators listed 17 companies that had failed to follow permit requirements. The largest violator was the Ben Jerry’s ice cream plant in Waterbury. The plant and 16 others around the state were found to be in “significant non-compliance” of their permits in 2024. In those cases, however, the violations mostly involved failing to file reports as required. In the Agri-Mark case, a number of the violations “resulted in impacts to the municipal wastewater treatment facility,” the DEC said. “Without proper pretreatment, there is the potential for discharges from municipal wastewater treatment facilities to contaminate our lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and wetlands,” DEC Commissioner Misty Sinsigalli said in the statement. Cherington, the Middlebury official, said it’s likely the municipal plant discharged pollution into Otter Creek because of the excessive plant waste, but she didn’t have details. The DEC also stated that Agri-Mark failed to keep the plant in good working order and did not employ enough staff. Agri-Mark agreed to pay the $60,000 fine, hire a consultant to fix the issues, develop a compliance plan and hire more staff. The cooperative added significant additional equipment in 2024 to upgrade its wastewater treatment process and has been fully compliant with its permit since then. “Protecting the environment is something we take seriously,” the company wrote. “We remain committed to operating responsibly, upholding environmental stewardship, and maintaining the trust of our community and regulators.” It’s not the first time the company has run afoul of regulators. It paid a $50,000 fine for a 2005 ammonia spill and resulting fish kill in the Winooski River and for disposing of detergent-laden water on area farm fields. The post Cabot Cheese Plant Fined $60,000 for Environmental Violations appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less