Appeal Hearing Set On Roaring River Cafo

[Roaring River Veteran]

okay, obviously Aaron and I don't agree. He has some great ideals but in my opinion not very realistic. Who knows maybe he is right, maybe America will go on a diet.

I also respect that he feels the need to stand up for nature, but my question is where was he when the Ozbuns were getting the permit and getting permission from their neighbors? who later changed their minds. Where was he and the opponents while they were building? But now 2 years later everyone shows up to try to shut them down. Everyone wants them to shut down a 500,000+ dollar chicken farm. and who is going to make those payments if they are closed down. When they lose their family farm and everything they have worked for and hoped to give their children, because they can't make the payments, can they come live with you?

Has anyone been down to see the location of the farm? I just got back. I made a special trip to see where the farm was so that I could see how terrible it is. Truth be known it was fairly hard to find. It sure appears to be closer to 2 miles out of the park by my odometer. If my odometer is accurate there are chicken farms closer just off of hwy 112 going toward Seligman and a couple that are closer as the crow flys on washburn prairie going toward Cassville.

Aaron, If you want to stop them from spreading it on fields due to run off I will get behind you. If you want to keep them from feeding it to cattle and hogs I will get behind you on that too. But if you want to shutdown a farm that was done by the books, then I will have to disagree with you.

If you want to make a difference and keep this from happening again then call your congressmen and senators. Get the laws changed. If they won't do it then punish them by voting them out of office. Run against them and stand on your platform, but don't punish a family with a modern day witch hunt just because they have neighbors who know how to raise a bigger stink than a chicken farm.

okay I'm throwing away the soap box now..........

RRV

[bigredbirdfan]

Be honest how often do you eat chicken per week?

We want mega amounts of chicken, but don't want any foreign meat.

We want domestic but don't want the operations in our back yard.

These operations are cleaner than they have ever been.

Can't have it both ways people.

Having grown up in the poultry business 100 broilers is a joke. Each large house you see holds a couple thousand. The sad thing is all runoff ends up White River Basin (Table Rock) and my biggest complaint is the widespread use of commercial, industrial fertilizers at people's homes, golf courses (they don't stay green on their own) and agriculture. Chicken litter applied correctly actually doesn't run off and if tilled under stays for years.

I think the point about the hatchery is somewhat valid. There is no way in hell they would get a DNR permit (in 2009) to put in a trout hatchery and trout park disrupting the natural flow of a national waterway.

[Aaron J Scott]

The sad thing is all runoff ends up White River Basin (Table Rock (and then Taney, Bull Shoals, so on and so forth, and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico)) and my biggest complaint is the widespread use of commercial, industrial fertilizers at people's homes, golf courses (they don't stay green on their own) and agriculture. Chicken litter applied correctly actually doesn't run off and if tilled under stays for years.

I agree, Redbird, traditional fertilizers are far and away better than petroleum-derived fertilizers. And "applied correctly" is definitely key – but I think, too often, people (be it lawn junkies, golf course groundskeepers or crop farmers) over-fertilize. And then, not only is the soil burned out, but all the excess fertilizer washes into the water table after the next good rain. And then, eventually, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico expands.

Somehow, this just came up in the newsroom, which I e-mailed around to my people – an article that ran in the NYT a while back re: "cow power." Out east, they've developed a way to turn waste from a dairy operation into methane, which they then burn to generate electricity and sell it back to the power company. I have no clue if the same potential exists for chicken or hog operations, which I figure there are more of around here than beef or dairy as far as CAFOs are concerned, but I think it's a great example of solving two problems – 1) excess waste from an ag operation and 2) an ever-increasing need for regenerative power – with an innovative solution.

But that is outside the central issue at hand, which is a CAFO's proximity to RRSP and Roaring River itself. The Globe has a detailed article from Thursday's hearing, and I'm interested to see what happens during (and after) today's hearing.

When it boils down to it, my beef isn't with the people operating the CAFO – I'm more concerned that DNR isn't doing more to protect the areas in and around public lands. Had the permits not been approved in the first place, they wouldn't have spent the money to build it and, it can be speculated, find an alternative use for the land. It's not the first CAFO built in Missouri and I doubt it will be the last, but I hope that, after this, it will be the last built within just a few miles of a state park or other public/recreational/protected land. Maybe this is something that will change with a new DNR director (Coonrod?), and we'll just have to wait a few more days to find out.

[Roaring River Veteran]

I too agree with redbird. used properly litter is as good and safe as it gets I too grew up raising chickens and cattle and I don't have a problem with either.

The question is weather this farm should be shutdown. In my opinion, they should not. They did it legally and to specs.

Should the state have let them? I don't know I am not qualified to make that determination. That is something for the scientist to decide. Would I have approved it in its current location? Probably not. If you want to prevent it from happening again then by all means file to run for state office and if there are enough people who believe like you and you get elected then you can prevent it.

Speaking up for nature is noble. They don't have a voice of their own, and they are God's creatures. But ultimately the thing that God loves most are his children, your fellow man, and I can't help but believe that someday we will all have to answer for the wrong we have done toward our fellow man. Ruining this families lives the lives of their children and their children's, children is something I'm not willing to answer for just because someone doesn't like the smell or they are afraid that there is a chance that it might harm a fish. If you are willing to be judged for that then more power to you and good luck.

[Phil Lilley]

My understanding of the whole situation is that the DNR or state leaves alot of the regulations up to individual counties to control farms and properties... kinda like the relationship between the federal and state gov't. If the county doesn't have the regs and teeth to enforce rules such as this situation, then DNR is powerless to except for what the state has mandated. That's my understanding of what my father-in-law told me. He is the outgoing omsbudsman for SW MO DNR and was at alot of the meetings.

[jomoflyfisher]

I dont feel people are looking are the real problem, I have seen what the chicken operations can do to a stream or river as well as a lake. I love roaring river and am there many time a year, Lets look at what the cafos have done else where in missouri and oklahoma. I was raised on Grand lake and elk river, and years ago before the cafos elk river was crystal clear but when the cafos moved in the river is now one of the most disgusting rivers around. go to noel missouri below the dam and look at what is being put in there it will make you upchuck. and then we have the algea bloom on grand that is lovely during the summer months, but dont worry table rock will soon have the same look. so much for table rock being a clear lake for tourism, but we must move over for big buisness so that big money can be made in missouri