Environment
Hilmar Cheese Company is proud of our longstanding commitment to environmental stewardship. Owned by eleven local dairy families, we recognize our responsibility to the community and environment in which we live and raise our families. That commitment begins with conservation and careful management of our resources.
Hilmar Cheese Company is proud to be a member of the California Climate Action Registry and has been recognized by the Registry as a Climate Action Leader in working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Water Management
Hilmar Cheese Company reduces, reuses and recycles a variety of resources, including water. Recycled water accounts for nearly 60 percent of the water used at our facility. We also treat our process water to produce more than one million gallons of clean irrigation water daily.
Today, Hilmar Cheese Company operates its own, on-site, state-of-the-art water treatment facility. The fully integrated four-stage system represents the single largest investment in water treatment made by any food processor in
California. This treatment system removes nearly all of the organic components (sugar, protein and fats from milk) in our process water while continuing to achieve unprecedented reductions in salts and other natural minerals.
View a photo and diagram of the water treatment facility
Supplemental Environmental Project
Hilmar Cheese Company is conducting a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) to study the management of salinity in process water in the food processing industry. The SEP will be spearheaded by two well known and highly regarded researchers known for their work in water quality issues, as well as, environmental, health and safety regulations in California. The study will focus on the Central Valley’s vital food processing industry, its role in the salinity issue and potential solutions for the environmental and economically sustainable management of salts. The study is expected to play a central role in broader salt management research and planning activities recently undertaken by the State and Regional Water Boards.
Read the Supplemental Environmental Proposal.
The project also has its own website: www.hilmarsep.com