The famous yogurt brand, Chobani, might be in some hot water. Recently, it was discovered that the huge factory in New York was pumping millions of gallons of water each day to keep up production. In addition to pumping so much, they never told any regulators about it.
Chobani never looked into getting water permits from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission before it started using such large quantities of water. The SRBC has to give express permissions to larger operations wishing to pump water from the river basin. Earlier this year, local residents complained that their drinking water wells were running dry.
Using nearly 1 million gallons of water per day, the SRBC requires businesses pumping more than 100,000 gallons per day to be reviewed. This would ensure the local water supply is not rendered useless, damaged, or causes stress on the environment.
Depending on how severe the SRBC deems the violation, Chobani may have to bay anywhere between $50 and $1000 per day it was in violation of the 100,000 gallon limit. Since massive pumping has been going on since 2007, the yogurt company could be doling out some serious cash.
A spokesperson for Chobani said, "As soon as we became aware that we were not in compiance, we notified [the SRBC] and began the permit application process immediately. We've been working extremely closely with [the SRBC] now for nearly 18 months on both developing the test plan to determine the aquifer capacity to supply the plant and surrounding communities, and obtaining the necessary permits."
Chobani reported itself to the SRBC in August 2011 and the applications for permits filed in September 2011 are still pending. The company is still set to expand its operations in New York, as well as open up the world's largest yogurt factory in Idaho.
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