By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Despite dozens of complaints in recent months, it appears there will be no help for Carthage odor problems in proposed rule changes being developed at the request of the Missouri Air Conservation Commission.
Revisions sought by the panel this week do not include a stricter odor threshold in state enforcement standards, a state official said Friday.
Carthage Mayor Jim Woestman has addressed the commission and other state boards to urge stricter state enforcement in response to odor problems that local officials attribute to Renewable Environmental Solutions, a biofuels plant that opened in the Carthage industrial bottoms several years ago.
Woestman on Friday said he is not surprised by the commission’s direction, and said the city will look at enforcing its own odor rules.
Tom Flanigan, a former Carthage councilman who takes office in January as a state representative, said he will sponsor legislation aimed at a tougher state response to odor problems.
Changes directed by the commission after meetings Wednesday and Thursday would consolidate enforcement protocol and add some specifics on when companies would have to develop odor-control plans, said Leanne Tippett Mosby, with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Commissioners did not call for a change in the dilution threshold that triggers state enforcement, but did ask DNR staff to continue to collect data on odors at varying dilution levels, said Mosby, who has been working for more than a year with groups looking at possible changes in state odor rules.
She characterized the commission’s request as a first step.
“They didn’t ask us to start the formal rule-making process, just to draft some language to start to review at their next meeting, so there is plenty of time for public comment,” she said. “They did consider looking at a provision related to RES, but at this point, decided they don’t want to include that in a rule.”
Currently, a company is subject to be cited by the state if it releases odors that can be detected at a dilution of 7-to-1. Woestman and other Carthage officials have been lobbying for a stricter ratio, saying residents are still bothered by odors from the biofuels company in the city’s industrial bottoms.
There has been no violation based on odors from the Carthage bottoms since 2006. But Carthage-area residents made nearly 60 complaints to DNR about odors from the area in October and November, and most cited RES as the odor source.
In some cases, DNR inspectors also noted the odors, but not at the 7-1 dilution that would trigger state action.
RES officials have said that their plant is not the source of recent odor complaints, citing odor controls installed after the company was sued by the city and the Missouri attorney general’s office. The firm’s attorney repeated that argument in comments before the commission in October, and said there is no need for state odor rules to single out RES.
Mosby said DNR will continue working with Carthage “in an investigation and technical-assistance mode.”
A state survey on odor problems has been returned by 568 households, with 474 responding that they had been bothered by odors from the city’s industrial bottoms.
“Some of the responses included meteorological conditions and information to help us better target our investigations, and we’re hoping to get more,” she said. “One of our staff spent a few days in Carthage recently. We’re gong to ask him to do that again and use information from the surveys to determine the best time, because the last time, he didn’t detect any odors.”
Flanigan said he plans to introduce a bill that would increase the level of fines assessed on companies based on the numbers of times they are cited for violating state odor rules.
If the dilution threshold were lowered, the law “would give the state some teeth,” he said.
CAFO rules
Revisions sought by the commission call for no changes in odor rules that apply to concentrated animal feeding operations. The rules still would apply to only the largest of the operations, but might be altered to call for the companies to pay for the second-round testing required before a violation is issued.
