By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

A judicial ruling that prohibits construction of CAFOs within 15 miles of Missouri state parks and historic sites could be appealed this week. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources, meanwhile, has issued a permit to a McDonald County CAFO that opponents believe may be within the protected buffer.

The court ruling, issued on Aug. 25 by Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce, gives the defendants 30 days in which to file an appeal. The defendants are the DNR and its director, Doyle Childers.

After the ruling, Childers said the department would explore options with the intent of filing an appeal. The Missouri Department of Agriculture also has encouraged the DNR to file an appeal.

The judge ruled in favor of the Missouri Parks Association, the village of Arrow Rock and the Friends of Arrow Rock, which banded together last year to oppose construction of a 4,800-hog CAFO by Dennis Gessling within two miles of the state historic site in central Missouri. Arrow Rock has been referred to as the Williamsburg of the Midwest because of its historic buildings.

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. But DNR’s officials said after the ruling that, from their perspective, all of the state’s historic sites and parks now effectively have 15-mile buffers around them.

The judge said the construction of confined-animal feeding operations near state parks and historic sites poses an unacceptable health risk because of “odors and volatile and dangerous airborne pollutants” emitted by them. She cited reports by the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support her position.

Childers, however, described the decision as a sweeping example of judicial activism.

In declaring that the department had failed to protect Missouri’s state parks and historic sites, the judge also stripped away the department’s ability to issue new CAFO permits. The judge said she was in charge of that now.

But since that ruling the department has issued two construction permits for poultry CAFOs that opponents say might be within 15 miles of Big Sugar Creek State Park in McDonald County.

Renee Bungart, spokeswoman for the department, said the permits were issued on Sept. 15. She provided the following statement: “The Missouri Department of Natural Resources respects the court’s authority and will take all necessary actions to ensure compliance with its recent ruling. The department is carefully reviewing each CAFO permit application prior to issuance to ensure that it will not violate the court’s ruling. When applications are believed to be outside the scope of the court’s ruling and when they meet all regulatory requirements and demonstrate that the operation will protect water quality, the department is obligated by law to issue the permit.’’

Asked specifically about the 15-mile buffer around Big Sugar Creek State Park, Bungart said in a prepared response: “The department is unable to comment further on your questions due to pending litigation.’’

When the ruling was issued, 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 DNR’s decision to issue construction permits for the poultry CAFOs in McDonald County has been brought to the attention of Richard Miller, the lawyer who represented the Friends of Arrow Rock, the village of Arrow Rock and the Missouri Parks Association, by Albert Midoux, who lives near the poultry CAFOs.