Birds Eye announces plan to clean Fennville water

FENNVILLE, Mich. (AP) - Birds Eye Foods Inc. has announced a plan to remove iron from Fennville's city water supply and expand the system's service area into two neighboring townships.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says a Birds Eye food-processing plant in the Allegan County community has contaminated some private wells in nearby Clyde and Manlius townships with iron, manganese and arsenic.

Affected property owners and others would get the water service.

Birds Eye has a state permit to dispose of production waste water by spraying it onto fields near the properties. The DEQ says that has led to the heavy metals seeping into the groundwater.

The company also said in a statement issued Wednesday it's planning to upgrade its waste water treatment system.

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