Cenex Harest States Fined In Phillips County Case

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — Cenex Harvest States Inc. has been fined $500,000 after pleading guilty to acriminal charge for not properly reporting the extent a chemical release during a fire at its milk co-op in north-central Montana over three years ago. A federal judge in Great Falls also ordered CHS to make a $50,000 payment to the Phillips County Rural Fire Department as a community service. Hundreds of cattle were exposed to smoke from the fire and 14 calves died of a lung ailment. CHS paid the owners of the calves for the dead animals and bought about 475 head of cattle that had been exposed to smoke.