By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

By the end of the year, Missouri should have new rules governing the state’s growing number of concentrated-animal-feeding operations.

Whether those rules will be tougher than existing ones or favor the growth and operation of CAFOs remains to be seen. Right now, representatives of the agricultural industry and environmental groups are jockeying for position by participating in a state work group that is drafting new language.

It will be up to the Missouri Clean Water Commission to decide what is included and excluded.

Jan Tupper, a Joplin resident who serves on the commission, said he cannot comment on the direction the new rules might take because he has not seen them yet.

“The mission of the commission is to protect the waters of the state. That’s all I can say until we (the commission) get together and act,’’ he said. “The commission will act as majority but I have no feel for how it will act.’’

Missouri’s CAFO rule is being revised by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in response to changes mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The new EPA rules could require more stringent reporting — especially for poultry operations — with regard to how and where agricultural wastes are applied to the land. The new rules also could change how CAFOs are classified in terms of the numbers of animals that can be housed under one roof.

Who is involved?

The work group is made up of representatives from more than two dozen organizations. Among them are some of Missouri’s hog and poultry companies that have operations in Southwest Missouri. Environmental groups and others that have expressed concerns about the impact of CAFOs on small family farms and the environment also are represented. Among the agricultural interests are Moark Industries, Premium Standard Farms, Tyson’s, George’s, the Missouri Pork Producers Council, the Farm Bureau, the Poultry Federation, Missouri Agribusiness Association and Smithfield/Murphy.

The inclusion of so many of those industries prompted Ken Midkiff, chairman of the Missouri Sierra Club’s Clean Water Campaign, to decline an invitation to participate.

Robert Brundage, legal counsel for Moark who is representing the Missouri Agribusiness Association on the work group, said: “The work group needs to include all of the so-called customers of the DNR and all of the groups that need permits. It is absolutely critical they be involved. You cannot exclude the interests that apply for permits. That would be patently unfair.’’

Attempts to reach representatives of the Poultry Federation, the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Pork Producers Council were unsuccessful last week.

Kathleen Logan Smith, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, is on the work group. She said she, too, is concerned about its makeup.

“This could be an opportunity to strengthen the rules, but it’s also an opportunity to gut them. The people who want to gut it are outnumbered by those who want to strengthen it,’’ she said. “The regulated community is being represented, but what about the children in rural Missouri who must inhale ammonia from these CAFOs?