By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

EAGLE ROCK, Mo. — A hearing on a challenge to the construction permit that was issued for the Ozbun Farm CAFO near Roaring River State Park has been continued.

The weeklong hearing was slated to begin today in Jefferson City. The hearing now is scheduled to begin March 10.

Opponents of the poultry operation, members of the Roaring River Parks Alliance, filed a motion for a continuance Dec. 26 with Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission. The opponents asked for more time because they recently retained a lawyer and contacted two expert witnesses.

They also have submitted a request to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to obtain the files in the Ozbun case. The DNR granted the permit to the Ozbuns.

In their motion, opponents of the concentrated animal feeding operation said they needed more time to review the files, and to work with their lawyer and the expert witnesses to prepare for the hearing. They have hired John Price, an environmental lawyer in Springfield, to represent them.

A motion objecting to the continuance was filed by Rodney and Michelle Ozbun, the owners of the CAFO that is to house up to 65,600 chickens for the George’s processing plant north of Cassville. The Ozbuns argued that opponents had months to prepare their case.

The commission granted the continuance in an order issued Dec. 28.

The opponents, among other things, have said they will attempt to show that the DNR circumvented the original 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.

The hearing commission, a division of the executive branch of state government, is a neutral administrative tribunal that resolves conflicts that usually are between two parties.

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 geological features to minimize nutrient runoff and infiltration into groundwater, according to the DNR.