By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — An appeal of the construction and operating permits for the Ozbun CAFO near Roaring River concluded on Friday with statements from Michelle Ozbun, owner of the CAFO, and Kaye Smith, a member of the Roaring River Park Alliance.

After hearing two days of testimony in which her 65,600-chicken CAFO was repeatedly attacked for being in the wrong place and improperly permitted, Ozbun said, “I followed the regulations and did what I should have to make everybody happy. None of the litter has gone into the watershed.

“I have tried to keep everything clean. I just can’t make everybody happy.”

Smith, a resident of Pierce City with property near the park, said, “I believe you are completely sincere and did all of the right things. But our loyalty to the river and Table Rock Lake is personal to us.”

Smith said members of the alliance are fighting for the river because they are not only concerned about water quality, but air quality, tourism and the devaluing of their properties to “satisfy the lust of the meat-processing industry.”

She said the Missouri Department of Natural Resources should know by now that “citizens across the state are experiencing an epiphany” regarding the negative impacts of CAFOs. She said, “There must be common ground somewhere.”

Until then, she said the alliance will stay the course and carry out its “mission to preserve, defend and protect our state parks. By the way, those words were taken verbatim from the DNR’s own mission statement.”

Smith’s statement concluded the hearing before John Kopp, a commissioner with the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission. Kopp is expected to issue recommendations about the permits to the Missouri Clean Water Commission in April or May. At that time, the commission could accept, reject or ignore his findings.

Though Kopp permitted testimony about air emissions from the CAFO to be entered into the record, he said he only has jurisdiction over issues related to water quality. The testimony about air emissions and their potential impact on the river was permitted because the opponents of the CAFO intend to continue the legal appeal.

On Friday, Kopp heard more than three hours of testimony from Derrick Steen, who managed the permit for the Water Pollution Control branch of the DNR. He was repeatedly asked to explain provisions of the permit related to the completeness of required construction drawings and the required compaction tests for the clay floors below the barns at the Ozbun CAFO.

He said construction drawings for the CAFO were no different from any of the other construction drawings for the dry-litter operations he has approved for the department. On Thursday, an expert witness said those drawings amounted to “to four rectangles on a piece of paper” when blueprint drawings should have been submitted.

He said no tests were done to confirm that the clay floors in the barns were compacted in manner that complied with state regulations.

He said the permit does not require Ozbun to account for what happens to the 475 tons of chicken litter that were hauled away from the CAFO by a third party last year and spread as fertilizer on nearby farmland. He said no permit is required of the people who spread the litter.