By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
CASSVILLE, Mo. — Sharon Riedel started to explain to the Missouri State Park Advisory Board why confined-animal-feeding operations pose a threat to Roaring River State Park, but she couldn’t.
With tears welling up in her eyes, she had to stop to regain her composure. She said, “I am trying not to be emotional, but Roaring River is a God-given beauty that should not be taken away.’’
Riedel told the board, which met Friday morning in the Roaring River Inn, that she had heard Emory Melton, of Cassville, give a fireside chat about the history of Roaring River the night before. She described Melton as a local statesman who understands the importance of the park and the river to Barry County.
“A hundred years from now when someone gives another fireside chat will they say that our legacy was letting Roaring River be surrounded by CAFOs?’’ she asked.
Riedel was one of the more than 40 people who turned out Friday morning for the board’s meeting to express concern about what they see as a threat posed by CAFOs near state parks and historic sites. They traveled to Roaring River from Joplin, Carthage, Neosho, Eagle Rock and Arrow Rock, a historic community in central Missouri that recently filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and its director, Doyle Childers, to attempt to stop a hog CAFO there.
Speaker after speaker before the board decried the stench of corporate agriculture, and its influence on state politics through campaign contributions. Childers, in response to the criticism, has said the claims made by those opposed to CAFOs near state parks and historic sites are “ridiculous.’’ He said their concerns are politically motivated.
Childers, while not at the meeting Friday, also has repeatedly stated publicly that the DNR can only do what it is authorized by state law to do, and that it is up to the General Assembly to make laws.
He has stated the DNR does not have authority to address issues of zoning, location, property values, tourism or others unrelated to water quality. He says as long as a permit application for a CAFO meets the state’s requirements, the DNR has no authority not to issue a permit.
Kay Smith, a Pierce City resident who owns a cabin at Table Rock Lake, said, “The DNR tells us they were forced to issue the permit for the CAFO here at Roaring River. They said they had no choice. I don’t believe that. The statutory mission of the DNR has been compromised to the mission of big business.’’
Jean Blackwood, of Carthage, said she has never put a fishing line in Roaring River, but that she comes to the park to camp, hike and bird watch.
“Is nothing sacred?” she asked. “The DNR must think nothing is sacred. I know this is a radical idea but I think the parks should be removed from the DNR and made into a free-standing division because the DNR has become hopelessly compromised by politics.’’
She said the agency is at cross-purposes with itself. She said it cannot protect CAFOs and state parks at the same time. The representation of so many people from across the state at Friday’s meeting of the board, she said, suggests the issue has reached a “a tipping point. Don’t let them tell you you are a boisterous minority. You are the bravest among us.’’
Wes Nall, of Neosho, told the opponents of the chicken CAFO at Roaring River not to expect any help from the DNR. He said he and others who live near Crowder College at Neosho have been fighting a poultry CAFO operated by Moark and the odor associated with it for years.
“Common sense?” he asked. “Forget about it. I have been trout fishing at Roaring River for 30 years. I don’t understand how they can do it. What we need are new regulations to control our water, our air and the DNR.’’
Jim Riedel, of Eagle Rock, husband to Sharon Riedel, said Childers has told the opponents of the chicken CAFO at Roaring River that CAFOs are needed to feed people. He said a recent report in the Wall Street Journal explained how Smithfield Foods had reached a deal with a Chinese interest to ship 60 million pounds of pork to China. “Why are we not sending any of the manure?’’ he asked.
Julie Fisher, who lives at Arrow Rock, said, “They say the people who are against Missouri CAFOs are against Missouri agriculture. That’s not true. CAFOs make up only one half of 1 percent of the agriculture in this state.’’
She said legislation to create buffer zones around Missouri parks and historic sites went nowhere in the last session of the Legislature. She said the board should consider the adoption of a resolution that asks for a moratorium on CAFOs around state parks and historic sites.
Pete Peters retired to Eagle Rock from the state of California a few years ago. He said he moved to Barry County because California had become too polluted. He said he was coming out of retirement to fight the CAFO at Roaring River.
“You either punch or get punched,’’ he told his neighbors. “We have to let people know we are here and that we have a cause for the whole state — clean air and clean water.’’
The board, which toured the park on Thursday, adopted a resolution in July recommending that the Legislature and the DNR “initiate discussions immediately’’ with the highest levels of leadership in the executive and legislative branches of state government to increase the protection of Missouri’s state parks and historic sites from developments near them.
Though the board did not specifically name CAFOs as the threat, the board’s acting chairman, Elizabeth Buckrucker, said the resolution was adopted in response to the threat posed by CAFOs. She said the board carefully considered the words it used in relation to the issue.
She said “potential impact’’ was considered before the board unanimously settled on the use of “threat’’ to underscore its concern.
She said the board has not received a response to its resolution from anyone in state government.
The Friends of Roaring River has evolved into a new organization, the Roaring River Park Alliance.
Mark Stephenson, a Joplin resident with a family farm near Roaring River that is threatened by a 65,500-poultry CAFO, said, “We have organized for the purpose of preventing pollution to environmentally sensitive areas in the Ozarks and the state of Missouri, specifically to state parks, such as Roaring River.
The group is now a corporation in the state of Missouri and has filed for nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service.
Said Stephenson: “For the first time, we are actively seeking contributions to support our efforts. We will use our resources to put an environmental attorney on retainer and work at preventing these CAFOs from being located in sensitive areas.’’
Stephenson said donations may be sent to the Roaring River Park Alliance, C/O Security Bank of Southwest Missouri, P.O. Box 606, Cassville, MO, 65625.
Punch line
“You either punch or get punched,’’ said Pete Peters, of Eagle Rock.
