Thank you, Joplin Globe, for uncovering the facts about the expanding poultry CAFO industry in Missouri. They are being investigated and regulated in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has never turned down a permit — period. They do what they want, where they want and it all seems to be OK without contamination.
Each farm — if you can call it that (chicken prison camp might be more appropriate) — produces tons of cheap phosphorus waste that is a paper trail monitored by the DNR to be spread as presently permitted only within a few hundred feet from rivers and streams.
Some is trucked farther with taxpayer assistance. Taxpayers pay DNR to monitor wells and streams in those areas as I have seen DNR monitor maps. Oklahoma has changed its laws on phosphorus, and Arkansas has agreed to comply. What about Missouri? Welcome to Missouri.
I suggest anyone truly interested read the lake environmental report from the Oklahoma secretary of environment (www.ose.state.ok.us/
documents/bills/GrandLakeSb408InitialReport.pdf). Oklahoma has been dumped on for the past 10 years. Poultry expansion is now banned near the Pensacola Dam.
The report also concludes that 72 percent of the phosphorus loading at Grand Lake stems from runoffs. Some 81 percent of the source loading is upstream of the lake in Missouri and Kansas.
Larry McIlrath
Joplin
Opinion
Voices: Welcome to Missouri
- Opinion
-
-
Our View: Victims should come first
Millions of dollars in donations have poured in from around the world since the May 22, 2011, tornado. Those donations represent money from lemonade stands, charity auctions, corporate gifts and celebrity checks, just to name a few. In fact, one year later donations continue to come to Joplin.
-
Beth Meeker, guest columnist: Same-sex marriage battle a quest for equal rights
I would like to take a moment to reply to guest columnist Anson Burlingame’s, “The Marriage Debate” (Globe, May 13).
-
Sunday Forum: 2012 graduation speakers key on tornado, mall school and president’s visit
Editor’s note: In addition to speeches by President Barack Obama and Gov. Jay Nixon, Joplin High School’s top students addressed graduates, faculty, parents and other guests packed into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. Following are the text of those speeches.
-
Geoff Caldwell, guest columnist: Pack mentality takes truth as a casualty
President Obama’s Joplin graduation speech Monday showed that while there’s the political “right,” there’s also a very active “rabid” political right.
-
Your View: ‘Study’ can mean anything
A few evenings ago, I watched a television program on the science of marriage.
-
Our View: Support for museum
How can you tell the story of Joplin without the accounts of its mining history?
-
Our View: Finding middle ground
The G-8 summit held last week in Camp David ended as expected.
-
Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Class of 2012 upholds character, hope
My oldest granddaughter was part of the class of 2012 from Joplin High School, and I attended the ceremony on Monday night.
-
Scott Charton, guest columnist: 'Deadline in Disaster' film a story about storytellers
Local newspapers are at their best when they help their communities confront, understand, endure and overcome shared challenges.
-
Our View: Make voting easiser
This year’s ballot will not include a proposed constitutional amendment that photo identification be required at the polls in Missouri. Good.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Our View: Victims should come first
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
