A bill under debate in the Missouri Senate to stop counties from regulating concentrated animal feeding operations should be treated as the swill it is.
Senate Bill 391 would give the state exclusive authority over CAFOs. Currently, county rules give residents protection that the state will not. In Missouri, county health and zoning ordinances seem to be the last bastion against expanding factory farms pushing into rural areas regardless of the intensive agriculture sites impact on residents and the environment.
The massive concentrations of waste products at CAFOs create serious concerns and have caused extensive damage when storms, floods and other problems have triggered leaks or ruptures of containment lagoons.
Waters near concentrated feeding operations, including groundwater, are at risk of contamination, algae blooms and other water quality impairments. Manure spills and leaks result in bacterial releases, water pollution and fish kills. Nationwide, fertilizer runoff and manure seepage closes beaches and helps create a summer dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. CAFOs use antibiotics and hormones that also can alter the biology of fish, reptiles and amphibians.
If youve driven by a CAFO, your nose tells you the air quality around it is abominable. This isnt the family farm. The animals packed tightly into these meat factories result in the release of methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and airborne particulates in significant quantities at high concentrations.
Defenders of CAFOs cite property rights and the economic benefits of the operations. Yet studies show having a CAFO near your home reduces your property value the closer the operation, the greater the loss of value. Studies even show life expectancies are lower in communities with high concentrations of confined hog-feeding operations than in the general populace, though the studies make no conclusion regarding the cause.
The state purports to protect water quality but seems instead to promote factory farming. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources gives only a veneer of concern to the approval process for CAFOs.
As we have said before, DNR has never met a CAFO it didnt permit. Public comments have no bearing on the outcome of a permit. The Clean Water Commission, part of the DNR, approves the operations regardless, ignoring local concerns.
This bill would harm rural Missourians. It should be defeated. People potentially affected by these operations have few tools to preserve their property, their health and safety.
Counties are a shield to protect local landowners, public health, water and air quality when the state will not.
