JEFFERSON CITY — In Missouri’s far southwest corner, farmer Douglas Wayne Harper says his livestock avoid a creek near a lagoon where a company has been storing sludge it collects from meatpacking plants in the region.
“The cattle will walk a ¼ mile to drink out of a spring that is on my property and protected from sludge run off from neighboring property,†he wrote in a plea to state lawmakers. “The stench from lagoon at times will make you nauseous.â€
In Randolph County, north of Columbia, resident Pamela Gayle Vestal said plans for a similar operation near Jacksonville have triggered the same concerns.
“My husband and I have worked hard to make our land, land that once belonged to my grandfather, a place to retire and enjoy sitting outside and gardening,†Vestal wrote in testimony to lawmakers. “If this dumping is allowed that plan will be gone and we have no idea what we will do!â€
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On Monday, the Missouri House is expected to take up legislation aimed at addressing the issue of what happens to the slurry of animal waste created by meat processors.
One of the sponsors, Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, said the fact that the proposal is moving quickly through the House “shows the tremendous support the legislation has across the state.â€
“It is critically important that this legislation passes to protect Missouri agriculture, property rights and our environment,†Deaton said Friday.
Like others, Jill Hudson, who lives near Wheaton on the Newton and Barry county line, wants something to be done.
“The SLUDGE that is being spread in our neighborhood is so stinky I almost PUKE when I walk outside,†she wrote in a plea to members of the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.
The legislation Monday could be a start.
Under a plan co-sponsored by lawmakers who represent areas where the lagoons are present, companies that want to build storage lagoons would be required to test the waste monthly for heavy metals and pathogens and to make sure those materials are not being spread on cropland.
The proposal — which exempts large animal feeding operations because they are regulated under a different set of rules — also would require groundwater-monitoring wells to make sure the material isn’t seeping into creeks, rivers and lakes.
The frustrations focus largely on one company’s practice of storing and spreading waste material it collects from chicken, beef, pork and turkey processors. Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions fills tanker trucks with the sludge and offers it to farmers as a free fertilizer. The material is stored in open lagoons until field conditions are right for the application.
Residents in both southwest and mid-Missouri have filed lawsuits hoping to stop the practice. State environmental regulators have intervened and are forcing Denali to empty the massive storage pits and send it to wastewater treatment facilities.
But residents and lawmakers say the Missouri Department of Natural Resources needs more tools to corral the companies.
Jacksonville resident Karen McAllister is among the critics. She says the spreading of the sludge has had significant detrimental effects on the Randolph County area.
“We have felt like prisoners in our own home during and after this spreading, unable to enjoy the outdoors or even walk to our cars to leave without smelling the wretched odor. The smell is nauseating and has caused my child to be sick, throwing up multiple times after just seconds of breathing in the air,†she said.
In Newton County, roughly 280 miles south, Jeff Bateman said the quality of life in the community has been negatively affected.
“We have ballgames at the school and other schools have had parents and kids get sick, throw up and have to leave or go sit in their car because of the smell,†he wrote to the committee.
The fight comes against the backdrop of Gov. Mike Parson’s administration pushing hard to grow Missouri into a major meatpacking state.
This year, there is an estimated $70 million in the state budget earmarked for projects that could boost the industry, including a $25 million laboratory at the University of Missouri dedicated to studying ways to increase meat production.
But, like the waste lagoons, the expansion has drawn concerns about pollution.
In January, Missouri Prime Beef Packers located near Pleasant Hope withdrew its permit application to use new technology to discharge 350,000 gallons of waste into the Pomme de Terre River on a daily basis after outcry from residents.
Residents of Lake Saint Louis also have raised concerns about an $800 million, state-backed meat processing facility in Wright City, which will release wastewater treated at a nearby facility into a creek that supplies the St. Charles County lake.
The legislation is and .