By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
EAGLE ROCK, Mo. — Opponents of the Ozbun Farms poultry CAFO, located within about a mile of Roaring River State Park, have opened a second front against the operation by challenging the farm’s operating permit.
A motion seeking a stay of the operating permit for the confined-animal feeding operation, which eventually could house up to 65,600 pullets for the George’s Processing Plant north of Cassville, has been filed with Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission.
Opponents have already filed an appeal of the farm’s construction permit. The hearing on that appeal is set for Jan. 7.
The commission, in a decision issued Thursday, decided to open a separate and new case on the operating permit for the CAFO after a motion was filed on Aug. 30 seeking a stay of the operating permit by a property owner, Beverly Sweeney, who lives near the farm at Eagle Rock in Barry County.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued an operating permit Aug. 22 to the CAFO.
Ranada Vinyard, an attorney with the commission, said, “The commission has opened a new case for the appeal of the operating permit. We now have an appeal of the construction permit and an appeal of the operating permit.
“They might be consolidated in the future, but right now they are two separate cases.’’
The commission will hear testimony on whether a stay of the operating permit will be granted or denied during a hearing Wednesday morning in Jefferson City, Vinyard said.
Michelle Ozbun, an owner of the farm, on Friday said, “I am absolutely not surprised by this — try, try that they may to stop us.’’
Ozbun would not say whether chickens have been brought to the farm to begin operations. She said she has hired an attorney in Jefferson City to represent her, and that she and the attorney will attend the stay hearing.
Mark Stephenson, a Joplin resident who has a family farm near the CAFO, said opponents of the CAFO also will attend the hearing. He said opposition to the CAFO is growing.
“We have grown in numbers,” he said. “We have a meeting set for tomorrow to get organized, and we are more organized than ever. We are getting inquiries from the public who want to know how they can help our issue.’’
Though the opponents of the CAFO were dealt a setback when the operating permit was issued, Stephenson said, “There is no way we are going to give up.’’
Stephenson said opponents of the CAFO will attempt to show that the DNR has mishandled the permits for the CAFO.
Parties wishing to join the appeal of the operating permit have only a few days in which to do that, he said. Appeals may be sent to the Administrative Hearing Commission, P.O. Box 1557, Jefferson City, MO, 65102, or by fax to (573) 751-5018.
The DNR, which issued both the construction and operating permits for the Ozbun CAFO, has been criticized by local residents, and by environmental and parks organizations in Missouri for permitting the CAFO to be constructed near a state park.
The commission, a division of the executive branch of state government, is a neutral administrative tribunal that functions as a court-like entity to resolve conflicts that are usually between two parties. In this case, more than 30 parties are participating in the appeal of the construction permit.
The commission issued a stay on the construction permit on July 25 after it received testimony that Ozbun still needed to obtain permission from an adjoining landowner to operate the CAFO. The operating permit was issued by the DNR when the agency determined that Ozbun had obtained the landowner’s signature to comply with the ruling of the commission.
No-discharge operation
The waste-management system for the Ozbun CAFO has been designed and permitted as a no-discharge operation, which means that wastes are contained and stored until proper land application can take place. Land application of the wastes must be conducted using proper agronomic rates, proper application timing and proper setbacks from geologic features to minimize nutrient runoff and infiltration into groundwater.
Source: Missouri Department of Natural Resources
