By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

An appeal hearing on the construction and operating permits for the Ozbun chicken concentrated animal feeding operation near Roaring River State Park will start at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission.

The two-day hearing will take place in Room 540 of the Truman Building in Jefferson City.

The Ozbun CAFO houses up to 65,600 pullets for George’s Processing, a poultry plant near Cassville. It was granted an operating permit on Aug. 22, 2007, by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The CAFO is within a mile or so of the river and the state park, a popular tourist destination in Barry County.

Local residents, supported by trout fishermen, environmentalists and tourism groups around the state, have formed the Roaring River Parks Alliance to oppose the CAFO and the possible construction of other CAFOs near the state park.

Similar controversies have erupted regarding hog and chicken CAFOs near other state parks and historic sites, such as the Arrow Rock and Battle of Athens state historic sites.

Opponents have argued that the CAFO at Roaring River will damage water quality in the spring and river, and be a drain on tourism.

The opponents also have said they will attempt to show that the DNR circumvented the original construction permit by allowing changes after the fact. The changes were made, they allege, without the public having an opportunity to comment on them.

Opponents also plan to cite the geology of the site, noting that there is a losing stream on the property that is an unnamed tributary to Roaring River. A losing stream is a water body that may lose and gain flow as water moves through the hydrologic system.

It is not clear how a recent decision by Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce will affect the hearing. The judge’s ruling prohibits the construction of hog CAFOs within two miles of the Arrow Rock State Historic Site. Originally, the judge created a 15-mile buffer around the park, but she later decided to reduce that to two miles.

State regulators say the waste-management system for the Ozbun CAFO has been designed and permitted as a no-discharge operation, which means wastes are contained and stored until proper land application can take place.

Michelle and Rodney Ozbun, owners of the CAFO, have retained Michael Schmid, an associate in the firm of Schreimann, Rackers, Francka and Blunt in Jefferson City, to represent them.

The Roaring River Parks Alliance will be represented by John Price, of Springfield.