Missouri counties struggle to control livestock odors

SHELBYVILLE, Mo. -- Hog farmer Chuck Wood is no stranger to stink. Around here, they say, manure is the smell of money.

Some neighbors of northern Missouri's numerous factory-size livestock operations are less effusive. They call the pervasive odors a public health threat, leading to respiratory illnesses and mood disorders, not to mention plummeting property values.

In the past decade, more than a dozen Missouri counties have passed health ordinances restricting the location of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOS. Several others, including Shelby County, are debating such ordinances -- even as state legislators are poised to revive efforts making it more difficult for local governments to do so.

As Shelby County's presiding commissioner, Wood, 61, is caught in the middle of a debate pitting neighbor against neighbor in a tight-knit, rural community desperate for some economic salvation.

"They don't want to limit growth; they don't want a health ordinance," Wood said of his constituents. "But they sure as hell don't want a hog farm next to them without a say in it."

State requirements

State law requires CAFOs -- defined as industrial-size livestock operations where animals are primarily confined indoors -- to be at least 3,000 feet from a residence. Those that don't qualify as Class 1A facilities, which is the largest designation, can be as close as 2,000 feet from a home. Class 1A facilities have at least 7,000 beef cattle, 17,500 hogs and 700,000 chickens.

Those state standards, enforced by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, are woefully inadequate, said Terry Spence, a Putnam County farmer who spoke in favor of local health ordinances at a recent public hearing in Shelby County.

Spence's home near the Iowa border is two miles from 80,000 hogs owned by Premium Standard Farms Inc., which in 1993 was able to obtain an exemption from a state law that places restrictions on corporate farming, allowing for major expansion into three northern Missouri border counties.

"I wouldn't wish that on anybody," he said. "If you're looking for DNR or [the Environmental Protection Agency] for help, forget it."

The talk of public health restrictions on industrial farms comes as Cargill Pork looks to expand its contract livestock operations in northern Missouri.

In a county with a declining population, limited industry and young people leaving after high school graduation, such potential investment is at risk, said local farmer Mark Wilson.

'Closed for business'

"If pass you pass a health ordinance of any kind, you'll put a 'Closed for Business' sign at every entrance to Shelby County," he said at the hearing.

The public division and hostility pains Wood, who plans to add 2,500 hogs at a second facility nine miles south of the 2,400 hogs next to his Clarence home. The expansion is far from any neighbors, he notes.

After meeting with legislative leaders in Jefferson City last week, Wood said he and his fellow commissioners will put the Shelby health ordinance on hold pending state action.

"It's an issue that has to be addressed in rural Missouri," he said.

Rep. Pete Myers, R-Sikeston, has said he plans to introduce a bill that would require county elected leaders to consult with their local Soil and Water Board before passing health ordinances.

In the 2005 session, the Missouri House narrowly defeated a bill that would have required counties to prove by "clear and convincing evidence" with published scientific data that state and federal laws weren't adequate to protect human health and the environment.

And a year earlier, former Gov. Bob Holden vetoed a similar bill that would have made it tougher for counties to restrict large livestock operations.