July 26, 2007 10:18 pm
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By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Carthage Mayor Jim Woestman and Tricia Orr, also a Carthage resident, were among more than a half-dozen people who addressed the Missouri Air Conservation Commission on Thursday and called for stricter state odor regulations.
Most of those who addressed the panel were members of a state group named by the Department of Natural Resources to draw up recommendations for the commission.
The majority of speakers called for stricter state regulations, with Woestman and Orr citing odors they say come from Renewable Environmental Solutions, a Carthage operation that converts poultry byproducts into fuel oil and other marketable materials. Others raised concerns about smells from large animal feeding operations.
Also during the session, state officials announced that plans are under way for an independent odor study in Carthage.
Leanne Tippett-Mosby, with the DNR’s Division of Environmental Quality, said the state has decided to pay for the work, and that proposals from potential contractors are to be submitted by Aug. 10.
“We want to do this as a pilot project, and control it, because we want to test the technology for our potential use,” she said.
Stricter standards
Woestman said he is pleased that the state will take full control of the project.
The state originally had agreed to the study after Brian Appel, president of Renewable Environmental Solutions, said he would pay for the work. Appel contends his plant is no longer the source of odor problems in Carthage.
Woestman and Orr both disagreed with that contention in their comments before the commission. They said ongoing odor problems from the plant have hurt Carthage and its residents. Both said they favor a stricter dilution standard that the current 7-to-1 ratio now required for state enforcement.
Woestman said the RES plant has made improvements, but it still sometimes emits “a stink bad enough to make you lose your appetite.”
“You can ask any restaurant in a two-mile radius,” the mayor said. “The way it is now, it can hurt the quality of life in Carthage and still not be a violation. That’s why a 2-1 ratio would make a lot more sense in populated areas.”
Orr said a lower ratio and stricter enforcement “would protect all citizens.”
“I’ve lived in my house for 12 years, and I’m 100 percent certain where the smell is coming from because it didn’t start until the plant started operating,” she said. “When you smell a skunk, you don’t have to see the skunk, or see it spray, to know what you’re smelling.”
Other speakers called for stricter regulations and said they should be applied to more than the largest concentrated animal feeding operations in the state.
Currently, state odor regulations apply to a hog CAFO with 17,500 animals, “but those with 7,500 to 17,499 hogs are exempt; that’s unacceptable,” said Julie Fisher, of Arrow Rock.
She said a hog CAFO under development near the Arrow Rock State Historic Site and a poultry CAFO planned near Roaring River State Park at Cassville will hurt the parks and the state.
‘Too big a net’
Several speakers representing agricultural interests said odor regulations should not be applied to the smaller CAFOs, and that other rules should not be changed.
“What we’re looking at here are a lot of complaints by a few people at a few facilities,” said Robert Brundage of the Missouri Agribusiness Association. “We don’t think there’s a problem that requires addressing beyond what’s being done now.”
Spokesmen for the Missouri Farm Bureau also argued that the complaints were not sufficient to trigger changes in state rules.
Roger Walker, an official of a group that monitors state regulations for businesses, said the rules being proposed “cast too big a net when there’s only a few, particular problems.”
He said his members also would not agree with the lower dilution ratio proposed in recommendations by environmental groups and the Missouri attorney general’s office.
Proposals from both groups called for a lower dilution standard and state regulations for more than the largest CAFOs, though the attorney general’s office recommended a technology-based approach that would focus first on working with businesses to help them get into compliance.
Joe Bindbeutel, assistant attorney general for agricultural and environmental issues, said the current 7-to-1 dilution is not an odor that anyone would want to be around for a continued basis.
“But it’s also a hard day for everybody, including the state, when an inspector has to tell a resident that the odor that’s hurting their quality of life doesn’t reach the threshold for regulation,” he said. “We’re convinced, because of the number of complaints, their widespread nature and repetition, that something needs to be done.”
DNR rules
Department of Natural Resources officials will develop their own recommended rule changes for submission to the Missouri Air Conservation Commission next month, said Leanne Tippett-Mosby of the DNR. Missouri’s rule-making procedure normally takes about 14 months.
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