Missouri – The Missouri House Bills 2134 and 1956 passed through the Missouri Legislature with a 155 to 1 vote. These bills are heading to Mike Parson’s desk to either be vetoed or signed into law. Both these bills will safeguard Missouri’s water resources and property rights.
Under this legislation, waste disposal companies who wish to construct storage lagoons for animal byproducts would have to conduct tests on the waste for heavy metals, pathogens, and other pollutants. The bill also mandates the installation of groundwater monitoring wells where needed to prevent any material seepage into water bodies. Any large animal feeding operations and other agricultural operations will be exempt from these provisions because they already have regulations in place for those entities.
The bill also introduces nutrient management standards to emphasize responsible land application. Lastly, it restricts the Clean Water Commission from exempting entities from water pollution permits unless engaged in the sale of commercial fertilizer.
In a recent press release, State Representative Dirk Deaton, sponsor of the two bills, “We’re just clarifying that, fertilizer license or no fertilizer license, this material has to be subject to a Department of Natural Resources permit, much like it is in virtually every other state in the union that would ensure that best practices are followed,” Deaton, R-Noel, said. “It is not our desire to take this tool out of the toolbox; some of these materials can be helpful and beneficial to our farmers, and we certainly don’t want to stand in the way of that. But what we don’t want to see is Missourians’ property rights being violated or abused as a result of over-application events we have observed.”
