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Bridgewater, SD - The man who left 44 tons of meat to rot in a Bridgewater business [reported by VIN] News said he feels badly that a foul stench overtook the town, but “that’s really where the extent of my feeling bad goes” because he does not feel he created a hazard for residents.

Ilan Parente, who operated Bridgewater Quality Foods for 10 years before moving to Minnesota in 2008, said the 80,000 pounds of rotting meat discovered June 23 did not constitute hazardous material. He also said his failure to remove the meat in the 17 months since he vacated the building was not necessarily negligence.

He told The Daily Republic Wednesday that he does not yet know if he will pay cleanup bills — which easily could total more than $5,000 — or if he will fight the matter.

“If someone would have told me I had left the building in disarray, in there had been rats, mice, vermin running around, I would have said, ‘You know what? I’m a negligent person,’ ” Parente said. “I feel bad for the people of Bridgewater who had to live with the smell. But that’s really where the extent of my feeling bad goes. It wasn’t ever a health hazard to anyone.”

Parente relocated his meat plant from Bridgewater to Dawson, Minn., in January 2008. The meat that was left behind — which Parente says was a collection of organs intended to be sold to a pet food company — was frozen up until December of 2008. Though Parente was aware that a freezer part broke, he trusted the weather would keep the meat at the proper temperature until he could arrange to have it removed in the spring of 2009.

Parente was late in doing so. He said he had last checked on the meat in May and found it iced over due to a broken water pipe. On June 10, he received a summons to remove the meat, which had begun to rot.

He said he got some workers together and arranged for garbage bins to be sent to the Bridgewater facility. Workers filled the one bin they received, Parente said, and they were set to finish the job the following week when Parente received an e-mail stating that the meat was rotting, covered with maggots and creating a stench throughout town.

A McCook County cleanup crew spent approximately 12 hours at the abandoned plant removing the meat. Twenty volunteers pitched in to empty the coolers in the 20-by-30-foot freezer. The following day, workers bleached coolers and tossed more trash. Most of the volunteers wore protective gear for sanitation purposes.

“Should we have acted sooner? Should the guys have gotten in there a week before? Probably,” Parente said. “If we were negligent, obviously those folks in Bridgewater would have smelled that meat last summer.”

Parente said the meat might have smelled bad, but it was never putting anyone in danger — “unless you get down and eat it.”

“Since when is rotting meat hazardous material? That means whenever a deer is hit on the side of the road, we’d have to vacate town,” Parente said.

McCook County Emergency Management Director Brad Stiefvater said many people who smelled the meat last week would disagree.

“A deer on the side of the road isn’t even as bad,” Stiefvater said Wednesday. “This stuff was enclosed and festering in 90-degree heat on Main Street in the center of town, near the bank and the café.”

Parente already has been billed several thousand dollars to contain and sanitize the site. McCook County’s portion for equipment and cleanup is around $5,000, Stiefvater said. Parente isn’t sure yet if he will pay or dispute the bill, which will also include fees from the Bridgewater city attorney and the city landfill.

“What it basically comes down to is, does one spend $7,000 or $10,000 to quiet this, or does one fight them?” he said. “I don’t have an answer to that. What I don’t want to do is, by paying this, I don’t want to admit, necessarily, guilt. Were we negligent? I don’t even know what the legal definition might be.”

Parente said the incident was not a deliberate attack on authorities or the city of Bridgewater. Parente said his next move will be determined by “people a lot smarter than myself.” “I’m at my wit’s end,” he said. “We tried.”