By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
EAGLE ROCK, Mo. — At least 45 days will pass before opponents of the Ozbun Farms poultry CAFO near Roaring River State Park will know whether they have been successful in obtaining a stay of the business’s operating permit.
The confined-animal feeding operation, which will house up to 65,600 pullets for the George’s Processing plant near Cassville, was granted an operating permit Aug. 22 by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
A hearing on the permit was conducted this week before Commissioner John Kopp, who sits on Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission.
The commission, a division of the executive branch of state government, is a neutral administrative tribunal that functions as a court-like or quasi-judicial entity to resolve conflicts involving permits and other contested issues.
After hearing testimony from representatives of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the opponents of the CAFO, and Michelle Ozbun, an owner of the CAFO, Kopp gave the DNR and the Ozbuns 25 days to file responses. The opponents were given 20 days after that to file their response.
Michelle Ozbun on Thursday said she did not wish to comment on the hearing. Her lawyer, Michael Schmid, an associate in the firm of Schreimann, Rackers, Francka & Blunt in Jefferson City, has said he does not comment on pending litigation. He, too, was given an opportunity to comment about the hearing on Thursday.
Jim Riedel, who lives near the CAFO in Barry County, and Mark Stephenson, a Joplin resident with a family farm near the CAFO, said the hearing went as expected, but that the opponents were dealt setbacks in their effort to seek a stay of the operating permit.
Kopp, they said, encouraged them to seek legal counsel in connection with future appearances before the commission. They said they will attempt to find a lawyer to represent them.
Riedel said, “The commissioner was hard to figure sometimes, but he seemed fair to us. He did a good job. He let us talk and was real courteous about giving us guidance, but everyone had lawyers but us.’’
The attorney for Ozbun, he said, dismissed “our points as minor screw-ups. He made little of it, but we don’t know what this judge is thinking.’’
Riedel said the group’s questioning of Darrick Steen, who handled the permit for the DNR, revealed that the DNR intends to inspect the CAFO only once every five years unless complaints about the operation are filed with the agency.
Riedel said Schmid, in his closing statement, produced a map that showed there are 260 CAFOs in Barry County and that 66 of them have received permits from the DNR.
“He (Schmid) told the commissioner that the people in Barry County like CAFOs and that all there is a boisterous minority that opposes this CAFO — but the people in Barry County like them,’’ he said. “But how many of those CAFOS are next to Roaring River State Park?’’
The opponents tried to introduce testimony about the DNR’s alleged non-enforcement of a stay that was issued by the commission in connection with the CAFO’s construction permit. The opponents wanted to show that construction of the CAFO continued after the stay was issued. Kopp would not allow that testimony, the opponents said.
The opponents also attempted to find out whether the Ozbuns were receiving financial support from other entities to pay for their lawyer. They said Kopp sustained a motion that objected to Ozbun’s answering of that question.
Ken Midkiff, with Missouri’s Sierra Club, and representatives of the Arrow Rock State Historic Site along the Missouri River, attended the hearing. A group in Arrow Rock is opposing a permit for a hog CAFO that is proposed for construction there.
Midkiff said Kopp limited the testimony to the protective conditions of the water-quality permit that has been issued for the Ozbun CAFO.
“He would not consider anything else,’’ said Midkiff. The opponents tried to argue that if construction continued after the stay was issued, then anything that was done after that was done illegally and the operating permit should not have been issued. Kopp would not allow that.
“They attempted to show that the DNR bent its own rules, regulations and procedures. That was not allowed to be heard,’’ Midkiff said.
The commission, in a decision issued last 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 Beverly Sweeney, who lives near the CAFO.
The opponents also attempted to challenge the setback waivers that were required from property owners who live near the CAFO. Stephenson said he produced copies of certified letters in support of that issue, but only the original letters, not copies, could be entered as evidence in the case.
The commission issued a stay on the construction permit for the CAFO 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.
Stephenson has said the waiver obtained by Ozbun was not the only waiver in question. A hearing on that appeal of the construction permit is set for Jan. 7.
Chicken CAFO
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, according to the DNR.
The DNR changed the construction permit to allow for the installation of an incinerator to burn up to 8,000 pounds of dead birds annually. The original permit called for the construction of a composter for the dead birds.
