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Dennis Murphy

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Missouri's watersheds bring conflict, concerns in state legislature
Mike Deering, Corner Post Staff

March 9, 2004 - After problems with lagoon spills in the early 80s, MU put extra emphasis on their swine operation.

"We have not had any spills to my knowledge since the 83' era. Our management is top of the line," said John Poehlmann, Director of Moaes Field Operation. "We operate under a sensitive watershed. We have Gans Creek to consider." He said the University operation is in strict compliance with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The recent concentrated animal feeding operations bill (1177) that was passed by the house on January 29, will allow more flexibility for farming operators like Poehlmann. The legislation proposed by fifth-district Representative, Jim Guest (R) essentially says that no county shall restrict farmers from expanding their operations unless true justification is recommended by the local soil and water conservation district.

The bill also puts greater faith in the hands of farmers and corporations keeping them from being in violation of the law if they have lagoon spills on their own property as long as they take appropriate measures in cleaning it up.

Opponents of the bill say this is an environmental hazard, opening the doors to careless management. Chapter Director of Missouri Sierra Club, Carla Klein, said that the chances of the spill being regulated to one area is very slim because cooperate lagoons are so large.

"The chances of water contamination are high," Klein said. She said that Premium Standard Farms are one of the largest polluters in the state. "In the 90s they use to be known as spill a day, kill a day."

She said the supporters of the bill want to eliminate control in order to defuse and silence the discussions and depletion of health ordinances related to CAFO's.

Dan Cassidy, director of national legislative programs at the Missouri Farm Bureau , said that many health ordinances are based on emotion instead of science and that is not fair to farmers.

"Opponents of the bill, think more regulations are the answer. That is not the answer. The answer is to work with producers," Cassidy said. He said these changes put Missouri in compliance with Federal regulations.

"They are trying to say that this bill will regulate state and federal laws. The truth of the matter is Missouri is one of the few states that are ahead of federal regulations," Klein said. She said some Missouri laws are stricter than federal laws and supporters of the bill do no like that. "If the only reason for this bill is to put Missouri in compliance with federal laws then why does the bill contain such language as taking power away from Missouri counties."

Opponents believe the bill will allow for carelessness. "We need to be partners with the land," Lt. Governor Joe Maxwell said. "If my neighbor pollutes his property, what is going to happen to mine," Maxwell asked?

Cassidy said that lawmakers need to put trust in Missouri farmers.

"Just look at who is behind the bill, they are all farmer ran organizations," he said. "We would not promote a bill that would hurt the environment because the blame would fall back on farmers."

Wes Shoemeyer (D), ninth-district representative covering northern Boone County was one of the two representative to oppose the bill. "We don't make laws for the 99 percent that will follow them, we make laws for the one percent that don't care if they pollute," he said.

County Commissioner and swine producer Keith Schnarre sees no reason this bill should raise environmental concerns considering Missouri is abiding by federal regulations.

Poehlmann sees pros and cons to the bill. On the positive side farmers will have more opportunities to make their operations a profitable enterprise. On the negative side, he said some may take advantage of the bill making the farmer the fall guy.

"We need to be cautious, and take precautions to keep farmers from going out on a limb," Poehlmann said.

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