DNR asking circuit judge to reconsider CAFO ruling w/ motions to stay and vacate, and related court documents

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is asking Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce to reconsider her decision to prohibit construction of concentrated animal feeding operations within 15 miles of Missouri’s state parks and historic sites.

The department, using law firms in Jefferson City and Columbia, has filed several motions in seeking relief from the court.

The department has filed a motion for a stay of the judgment. If that motion is denied, the department filed alternative motions to vacate the judgment or dismiss the case, to vacate the judgment and reopen the case, to grant a new trial, or to correct, amend or modify the judgment.

The Missouri Farm Bureau Federation has filed a motion to intervene, according to the court docket.

Joyce, the presiding judge of Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, is to set a hearing on the motions for 1:30 p.m. Monday, according to Linda Hartley, assistant to Joyce.

If the judge chooses not to reconsider and lets her decision stand, the department could file an appeal with an appellate court.

On Aug. 25, the judge ruled in favor of the Missouri Parks Association, the village of Arrow Rock and the Friends of Arrow Rock, which banded together last year to oppose construction of a 4,800-hog CAFO by Dennis Gessling within two miles of the state historic site in central Missouri. Arrow Rock has been referred to as the Williamsburg of the Midwest because of its historic buildings.

The judge, in siding with the plaintiffs, created a buffer zone with a 15-mile radius around the village, which has a population of 79, and other historic sites near Arrow Rock. But DNR’s officials said after the ruling that, from their perspective, all of the state’s historic sites and parks now effectively have 15-mile buffers around them.

‘Caught in a bind’

The defendants are the DNR and its director, Doyle Childers, who has described the decision as a sweeping example of judicial activism.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Childers noted that Joyce’s mother died during the same week she issued her judgment.

“She might have done this quicker because she was under more pressure than normally would have occurred,” he said. “It’s really unclear on what her decision was. It’s a little bit murky.”

Childers said that in one part of the judgment, the judge said “within 15 miles of Arrow Rock, but in another part talks more about the area surrounding Arrow Rock.” He also noted that the judge said neither he nor the department could build CAFOs.