Officials say a group of seafood
dealers in the Bayou La Batre area plan to use a $3.2 million
federal grant to build a seafood byproduct processing plant.
The Gulf Coast Agriculture and Seafood Cooperative's 23 crab and
shrimp processors haven't had a local place to dispose of crab and
shrimp shells since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement Friday that the
grant will pay for an environmentally friendly 12,700-square- foot
building to process the waste locally. It was awarded jointly to
the co-op, the Alabama Farmers Market Authority and the Mobile
County Commission.
Since Katrina, processors have been paying a total of $60,000 to
$70,000 to have the waste hauled to a landfill 50 miles away.
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