The legal fight is escalating in Butchertown over what JBS/Swift is doing at its meat-packing plant.

The Butchertown Neighborhood Association has discovered that Swift is storing meat in refrigerated trailers across the street from the main plant, an activity it says consitutes a hazardous use. The BNA says Swift needs a conditional use permit to store meat on its Cabel lot (leased from the city and LG&E). Earlier this week, BNA attorney Jon Saloman sent a letter to Bill Schreck, the city’s director of codes and regulations, asking him to issue an immediate stop order and to levy fines against the company.

Saloman said his group discovered that the refrigerated trailers, which emit diesel fumes, were running at all hours on the Cabel lot. In addition. Saloman said logs from Swift indicate further evidence that the company is storing meat in the trailers.

The dispute over zoning at the Swift plant is already the subject of a long-simmering dispute between neighhbors and the plant, and one that prompted a statement from Metro Council member David Tandy. The problem with Tandy’s idea for moving the plant is there seem to be no suitable place to relocate.

Saloman indicated that Metro Government seems to support Swift’s action, and actually leases the Cabel lot to Swift for a small fee.

The group is already fighting Swift’s illegal expansion at the plant. That concerns a hog chute that was built without zoning approval. That case moves forward at a scheduled BOZA hearing Aug. 31.