Stream Teams, Doyle Childers & Signage

Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) director, Doyle Childers, was in Jasper County, Friday, January 5, 2007, for what he called his 75th public forum. Frank Martinez of the Carthage Stream Team and Dwayne Miller of Neosho asked Childers for more MDNR suppport of their Stream Team initiatives. They were referring to dangerous contamination levels of bacteria in local streams. Childers responded by saying that MDNR does not have enough resources to do the monitoring and put up signs. He encouraged local groups to erect signs warning potential swimmers of the water contamination. Carthage Press

The Joplin Globe, in an article dated December 9, 2006, In our view: Monitoring Water Quality, warned that One of these days, Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources may be posting signs every 100 yards or so warning swimmers to stay out of Spring River because of human waste. Two water samples recently collected by a Carthage Senior High School volunteers found human fecal material near the dam below Spring River and very high levels of animal waste downstream. Such findings are not all that unusual in streams across the region. What better argument than preserving the quality of Southwest Missouri’s water supplies can be made to legislative consideration for additional funding so DNR and counties can to do more testing? Certainly the state needs to be proactive in investigating the various sources of such pollution and take corrective action. Finding the money may not be easy. But legislators should look long and hard to find additional dollars for such a program when they convene next month.

Dry Creek & Missouri Farms Dairy

Missouri Farms Dairy (MFD), Golden City, MO. was cited Friday, December 29, 2006 for allowing wastewater to flow from its lagoon into Dry Fork Branch, a violation of their operating permit. Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) Environmental Specialist, George Parsons, indicated that there were some maintenence issues causing the pollution problems.

Missouri Farms Dairy, originally called Hylton Dairy, was built on a 538-acre farm near Maple Grove (MO.). It is Jasper County's first confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) involving cows. The dairy produces about 6 million cubic feet of manure annually, according to The Joplin Globe, Wednesday, January 3, 2007, DNR Cites Dairy Runoff. A $3 million construction permit was issued by MDNR in 2000 to Danny Hylton of Hylton Dairy. It was aquired by MFD in 2004.

An adjacent property owner and environmental activist, Brent Erwin, spoke to the Jasper County Commission on Thursday, January 4, 2006, and encouraged the County to enact a CAFO ordinance. He reminded the comission that he asked for regulation of the large, concentrated livestock operation in 1999. "You said that you would look at a CAFO ordinance, but you dropped the ball." Erwin said that MFD has 1250 cows and a 10-acre lagoon. "If they can't manage their runoff in a drought, what's going to happen when we get a wet season?" Jasper County Commissioner Jim Honey responded by saying "I'm most interested in seeing setbacks from roads and streams. I don't think the county has the reources or the scientific knowledge to police them (CAFOs) otherwise". Erwin said that thirteen counties in Missouri have enacted CAFO ordinances, and that at least one, in Linn County, has withstood a court challenge.