May 08, 2008 07:58 pm
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By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Despite amendments added by a House committee, state Sen. Gary Nodler said Thursday that he still is hopeful that legislation can be passed this session that would increase penalties for odor problems from businesses such as Renewable Environmental Solutions in Carthage.
After testifying for the measure before a House committee on Wednesday, Carthage Mayor Jim Woestman said he has his doubts.
The House Special Committee on Energy and Environment recommended passage by the full House, but the measure that was endorsed “was so loaded up with amendments that I think it will probably kill it,” Woestman said.
Nodler, R-Joplin, said the measure that came out of the House committee has elements closer to a version of the bill that he proposed two years ago. That measure would have added additional odor enforcement targeted to other businesses and concentrated animal feeding operations.
“I was never able to get that one out of the (Senate) Agriculture Committee, so we reduced it down to more of an RES-type bill,” Nodler said.
That measure was unanimously passed by the Senate last month. Nodler said he hopes the House committee’s action “can be corrected on the House floor.”
Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, is handling the bill in the House. Nodler said he has urged Hunter and other members of House leadership to amend the measure back to its original form.
“It’s possible the legislation can succeed in its original form,” Nodler said.
Woestman said he told committee members that odors are hurting Carthage when equipment malfunctions or other problems cause odors to escape.
“They (committee members) were calling it an ‘oops,’” Woestman said. “I told them every time they have an ‘oops,’ Carthage has a stink, and it happens about three times a month.”
Woestman said he did not get word of the committee hearing until the day before, and he was the only person testifying for the measure.
“If we would have had some advance warning, I could have taken a busload,” he said.
He said Brian Appel, president of RES, who was in the capital for a meeting with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, also testified and said his plant was being “singled out” by the legislation.
Woestman said Leanne Tippet-Mosby of the DNR also testified, telling the committee about an odor analysis under way in Carthage.
Woestman said Carthage officials “are very, very disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be any support for us in the House.”
Under Nodler’s bill, companies that convert animal parts into petroleum would forfeit their operating permits if they violated air, water or odor pollution regulations at least six times in a 12-month period, or 12 times in a 36-month period. Financial penalties for violations also would increase.
The bill voted out of the House committee on Wednesday targets all businesses and industries except CAFOs.
“The only thing we can do now is hope that DNR will enforce a stricter odor ratio,” Woestman said.
Odors now must register at a 7-to-1 threshold before they violate state odor rules. DNR officials, at the direction of the Air Conservation Commission, are preparing more sensitive odor-testing equipment to collect additional information on when violations would occur at lower levels.
Odor group
A lower threshold for citing odor violations was among the recommendations to a group assembled by the Department of Natural Resources to look at whether changes are needed in state odor rules. Officials from Carthage and the Missouri attorney general’s office were among those calling for a change in the rules.
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