Three local environmental groups say they plan to sue the owner of the Linkwood, Maryland, rendering facility over waste it discharges into the Transquaking River, a Chesapeake Bay tributary. The Dorchester County facility, owned by Winchester, Va.-based Valley Proteins, takes byproducts of the chicken industry — blood, feathers, heads and other body parts — and processes them into protein for animal food. Over the last five years, the facility has been cited for numerous "significant" violations of the Clean Water Act and was fined a total of $5,000 by state regulators, according to an Environmental Protection Agency database. The three environmental groups — ShoreRivers, Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation — issued the notice of intent to sue April 13.