Uncontrolled Dumping of Toxic Animal Waste in Missouri Waters

There are no laws to prevent the spread of toxic animal waste in virtually every county, every watershed, every river, every lake and every parcel of ground in Missouri. My family and friends in McDonald County have witnessed this first hand. Missouri law allows unlimited numbers of four-acre lagoons filled with toxic waste from meat factories, industry and cities. These new lagoons near Joplin hold waste from Arkansas and the ones planned near St. Louis solicited poison from five states with plans to spread this on private land nearby.

Photo byWill DuttononUnsplash

According to Dan Chiles, "What Big Meat wants, they got: access to clean water from our aquifers, minimal oversight and most important: the right to dump oceans of toxic waste in our state with no limits whatsoever. To repeat: there are no limits on the amount of waste they’re allowed to dump in Missouri and no private land is safe."

Recently, a Texas-owned slaughter plant near Pleasant Hope dumped 350,000 gallons of toxic waste EVERY DAY into the Pomme De Terre River that feeds into Pomme de Terre Lake. This is perfectly legal in Missouri. These polluters can appear almost any place without public notice, discussion or appeal.

Meat factories dump toxic waste in the watershed for Stockton Lake which provides clean water to Springfield and soon will also supply water to a million people in Joplin and most of Southwest Missouri.

Missouri law allows the unlimited spread of waste from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), toxic waste lagoons, nasty feedlots and slaughter plants.

Missouri mayors and county commissioners have been stripped of their jobs to oversee stinking meat factories.

"As you may suspect, this crisis is all about money. Big Meat could process their waste like they do in Europe: convert toxins into benign, high value fertilizer. But no, that costs money and it’s a lot cheaper to dump waste on private property and in our rivers. Big Meat is less than 1% of our state economy but they threaten 100% of us. That’s why we formed Missouri Guardrails: a project to sound the alarm. We stand for property values and clean water. We also stand for catfish from a farm pond. For the family float trip. For rope swings in the Current. For lake cabins. For small farms. For pure drinking water. For our way of life.(www.missouriguardrails.org). ."- Dan Chiles

Attribution: https://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/2024/02/04/big-problems-coming-for-ozarks-if-no-one-stands-up-to-big-meat/72412262007/

Dan Chiles is a former member of Springfield City Council and former chairman of the board for the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks. He serves on the board of the James River Basin Partnership and is the board president of Renew Missouri.