DNR says judicial ruling stops CAFO construction in Missouri w/ Cole County Circuit Court ruling

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

If the ruling stands, Missouri’s state parks and historic sites, such as Roaring River State Park near Cassville, will trump construction of corporate animal farms.

A judicial ruling, issued Monday in Cole County Circuit Court at Jefferson City, has effectively stopped construction of concentrated animal feeding operations in the state, said Doyle Childers, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Childers said: “It basically knocks out CAFOs in the state of Missouri. The judge’s decision was for one county, but the department treats all of the counties the same.

“We can’t issue a permit in one county if we can’t issue them in all counties.”

The state has 30 days to appeal the decision, and the department is likely to do so, Childers said.

Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce on Monday ruled in favor of the Missouri Parks Association, the village of Arrow Rock and the Friends of Arrow Rock, organizations that banded together last year to oppose construction of a 4,800-hog CAFO by Dennis Gessling within two miles of the national and state historic site in central Missouri. Arrow Rock often is referred to as the Williamsburg of the Midwest.

The judge, in siding with the plaintiffs, created a buffer zone with a 15-mile radius around the village, which has a population of 79, and other historic sites near Arrow Rock. From the DNR’s perspective, all of the state’s historic sites and parks now have 15-mile buffers around them.

Joyce wrote: “If the Gessling CAFO is constructed and placed in operation as planned, this will decimate and destroy an irreplaceable part of the historical heritage of this nation and this state.”

The decision was hailed by opponents of a 65,600-chicken CAFO near Roaring River State Park. The Roaring River Parks Alliance has filed appeals of the permits the DNR has issued for constructing and operating the CAFO.

Joyce, in her ruling, cited the Roaring River fight as a reason to block the Gessling CAFO. The state Administrative Hearing Commission, she said, entered a stay order commanding that construction not proceed on the chicken CAFO at Roaring River. The DNR, she said, “failed and refused” to honor or enforce the stay order.

She said an appeal has been filed with the commission in an effort to stop construction of the Gessling CAFO. She wrote: “Even if the appeal is sustained by the commission, the plaintiffs are without an adequate remedy since the DNR has not within the past five years enforced, complied with or honored any stay order rendered by the commission.”

The commission, part of the executive branch of state government, is a neutral administrative tribunal that resolves conflicts involving permits and other contested issues in Missouri.

Childers said the stay order involving the Roaring River site was not enforced because the chicken CAFO already had been built. But opponents said construction was still under way when the stay order was issued.