JEFFERSON CITY — A top Missouri senator is raising red flags about an Arkansas company’s plan to build a “gigantic” lagoon in north-central Missouri to store waste it collects from meatpacking facilities.
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin said Monday that she plans to attend a meeting later this month to learn more about what Denali Water Solutions plans to do with the 4-acre facility near Jacksonville in Randolph County.
“I know we’re an agricultural state, and I realize people like to eat. But I am concerned about it,” said O’Laughlin, a Republican from Shelbina. “No one is sure exactly what it is.”
Denali, which collects waste for companies like Tyson Foods, Conagra Brands and Perdue Farms, wants to build a storage site that will hold up to 18 million gallons of dead animal material and similar waste associated with the meat-packing industry.
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O’Laughlin said residents have reached out to her to complain about the possible degradation of the area due to potentially noxious smells and the potential for leakage into groundwater and nearby streams.
“I know none of the residents of Randolph County look at this very positively,” she said.
O’Laughlin, the No. 2 member of the Senate, said she will assess whether to introduce legislation after she attends the Aug. 21 meeting in Macon being sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“We may need to kind of tighten the rules,” she said.
Denali has raised the ire of residents in southwest Missouri over spraying the discarded remains of chickens, turkeys and cattle on farmland. The company also has faced criticism for a large wastewater pond near Fairview in Newton County in southwest Missouri that was drawing complaints about its smell.
State environmental regulators have investigated a number of Denali-related operations, including one in Scott County in southeast Missouri, where a subcontractor applied the material on farm fields during a May 2022 rain event.
The Department of Natural Resources issued a letter of warning to the subcontractor over the incident, said Brian Quinn, a spokesman for DNR’s Division of Environmental Quality.
The company also sought to build a storage facility in Livingston County and was issued a construction permit by DNR. An operating permit was drafted but later withdrawn because Livingston County officials would not issue the company a permit.
DNR also has issued letters of warnings for spills and leakages of similar facilities dating to 2009, Quinn said.
In Randolph County, the company says it will transport sludge to the lagoon via sealed tanker trucks, with some possibly coming from out of state. The trucks will pull along the side of the lagoon and the truck driver will attach a flexible hose to the truck valve and to an unloading pipe that discharges into the lagoon, the application notes.
The company’s application says that the material is expected to form a grease cap that “minimizes the exchange of odorous gases.”
It also claims the grease cap won’t attract flies.
“This cap will act to reduce the attraction and harborage of rodents and flies as it naturally traps odors and most organic decomposition takes place under the cap,” the company said.
O’Laughlin said she’s discussed the issues with DNR and remains skeptical about the project, primarily because of the concerns about odors.
“I really haven’t gotten enough solid answers,” O’Laughlin said.