JEFFERSON CITY — Meatpacking sludge could soon be regulated under a new set of rules approved by the Legislature on Thursday, pending a signature by Gov. Mike Parson.
“We’ve seen pollution. We’ve seen the violation of property rights,†said Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, a co-sponsor of the legislation. “And the state has had no oversight or no involvement as it relates to the application and the storage of this type of waste material, and that just wasn’t going to be able to stand any longer.â€
Under the proposal, which won bipartisan, near-unanimous support in both the House and Senate, companies that want to build storage lagoons for animal byproducts would be required to test the waste monthly for heavy metals and pathogens and make sure those materials are not being spread on cropland. Storage lagoon operators would also have to install groundwater monitoring wells to prevent groundwater contamination in some cases.
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Some farmers use the meatpacking waste as fertilizer for crops.
“It is not our desire to take this tool out of the toolbox; some of these materials can be helpful and beneficial to our farmers, and we certainly don’t want to stand in the way of that,†Deaton said.
The storage of animal waste products in open lagoons and its spreading on farmland have been in regulatory limbo between the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board and the Department of Natural Resources.
Denali Water Solutions, an Arkansas-based firm that collects the sludge, last year sued the fertilizer board over its refusal to issue the company a fertilizer permit.
“This legislation clears all of that up, or it should,†Deaton told the Post-Dispatch. “It assures that yes, it does need to be regulated by the DNR, it is gonna have to be permitted by the DNR, and that’s clear in statute.â€
Missouri residents have also sued the DNR over regulation of Denali’s meatpacking sludge.
If Parson signs the legislation, the DNR would have to start drafting its rules within two months.
Lawmakers advanced the legislation in the face of outrage from rural residents in southwest and central Missouri at companies over the smell of the dead animal parts and the unknown environmental hazards of allowing the material to seep into groundwater, creeks and rivers.
In February, Denali reached a deal with the DNR to stop spreading the sludge on farmland and begin the process of removing it from three storage lagoons in southwest Missouri.
“Our bill doesn’t change that (process). It doesn’t speed it up or slow it down,†said Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, a co-sponsor of the legislation.
At a public hearing on the bill in March, a Denali representative told lawmakers the proposal was “too broad†and could lead to higher production costs and affect consumers’ pocketbooks.
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Kurt Erickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.