Missouri House passes bill regulating sludge basins, land application

Feb. 29—Online All public filings between the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Denali Water Solutions can be seen at https://dnr.mo.gov/water/business-industry-other- entities/water-pollution- control-sites-interest.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Southwest Missouri residents living with odor and other problems they attribute to unregulated storage and spreading of food-processing waste cheered passage of a bill Thursday imposing regulations on the practice. The measure now goes to the Missouri Senate.

Residents of Newton and McDonald counties who formed the grassroots group, Stop Land Use Damaging our Ground and Environment, or SLUDGE, say the move is progress but they still have more to do.

"Now to tackle the Senate," said Vallerie Steele, a SLUDGE committee member on the group's Facebook page.

She lives less than a mile from a wastewater basin built by Denali Water Solutions and said odors from the basin have been bad enough to drive her and her family indoors when they were trying to enjoy their property south of Fairview.

"We feel very positive about the outcome in the House this morning," Steele said. "We still have more changes that need to be made in legislation to safeguard and protect the citizens in Missouri, but today was a step in the right direction."

Farmer Adam Periman, another member of SLUDGE, said he is glad to hear the legislation passed but also said there's still work to do.

"Wonderful," Periman said. "I would say that's progress in the right direction. It's a bit like eating an elephant — you've got to do it one bite at a time and hope you can digest all of it. Anything that's moving forward, that's better than what we had in July 2023, that's a good thing."

permits requiredThe Missouri House vote to send the bill to the Senate was 151-2. The legislation would require Denali and similar companies to have water pollution permits and follow design requirements for their basins.

Basins like the one near Steele's home would have to be at least 4,000 feet from the nearest public building or home, depending on the size of the lagoon. The lagoon near Steele's home contains 14 million gallons of waste, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Smaller basins would be limited to 1,000 or 2,000 feet from a building.

The legislation also requires the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to establish sampling rules for the contents in the basins and require groundwater monitoring in hydrologically sensitive areas.

Sponsored by Reps. Ed Lewis, a Moberly Republican, and Dirk Deaton, a Noel Republican, the legislation also includes an emergency clause, meaning if it clears the Senate and is signed by the governor, it goes into effect immediately.

On Monday, the bill was debated in the House. Lewis proposed an amendment to add rules requiring third-party testing of the material in the basins and requiring a chain of custody for the material being tested. The amendment passed.

A second amendment, from Rep. Michael Burton, D-St. Louis, that would have banned any company from bringing in waste from outside Missouri, was voted down.

BackgroundUntil July 1, 2023, Denali Water Solutions and other companies were spreading waste from food processing plants and other materials on farms in Newton, McDonald and Barry counties without regulation under an exemption that had been granted by the Missouri Fertilizer Board.

Denali Water Solutions claims the product has fertilizer value and has been providing it for free to area farmers.

According to the company, more than 100 Missouri farmers rely on it, "and dozens of Missouri food manufacturers employing more than 10,000 Missouri workers depend on our services to continue their current business operations. Without the ability for Denali to operate, these Missouri companies will face extremely challenging and costly decisions. We believe this abrupt action by the Missouri DNR puts the state's food industry at risk."

The companies use the basins in McDonald, Newton and Randolph counties to store and commingle material from different sources before spreading it, but residents worried about what chemicals other than food processing waste is in it, and the impact it could have on groundwater and surface water.

Deaton said during Monday's debate on the House floor that the Fertilizer Board decided its only role was to ensure people were getting what they paid for when they purchased fertilizer and the material spread by Denali wasn't covered by them because it was free.

"They stopped renewing these licenses," Deaton said. "And that put it into the Department of Natural Resources domain. And so that's the status quo right now. The legislation I filed clarifies that fertilizer license or no fertilizer license, this material has to be subject to a DNR permit, much like it is in virtually every other state, that would ensure best practices are followed so you can't apply in the rain, you can't apply this in the snow. You can't apply at such a rate that it overflows onto your neighbor's property and pollutes their spring. All of these things we've seen repeatedly time and time again."

The DNR did not stop Denali from spreading and storing the material until October 2023 when the company was cited for improperly applying waste in McDonald County on land that was saturated by rains, allowing the material to flow into a tributary of the Elk River. According to the DNR, Denali has been cited four times for violations since September 2022.

In November 2023, DNR ordered Denali to stop its land application. In January 2024, DNR ordered the basins in McDonald, Newton and Randolph counties be emptied.

Denali has sued the Fertilizer Board asking it to reverse its July 2023 decision.

Denali has also applied for permits for the basins from the DNR, but the DNR said those applications are on hold pending the results of that lawsuit and other suits filed by SLUDGE and a group in Randolph County against the DNR seeking stricter enforcement of state clean water laws.

Denali, in an emailed statement responding to Globe questions Thursday, said it has problems with the bill and would be lobbying for changes in the Senate.

"As written, the current bill authored by Ed Lewis and Dirk Deaton would add excessive and unnecessary costs to food manufacturers and would have negative impacts on the state's economy and businesses," said Sam Liebl, a spokesman for Denali. "While Denali supports revised regulations focused on transparency, we feel strongly the bill voted on in the Missouri House of Representatives this week requires significant revisions. Denali is actively working with legislators to propose revisions to the bill. We've operated responsibly and per Missouri regulations for decades and are hopeful that we can work with legislators to arrive at a reasonable solution. Denali is committed to working toward common-sense regulations that support Missouri's food manufacturers, farmers and the strength of Missouri's economy in a responsible manner."