The State of Oklahoma may be the biggest ally of Southwest Missouri citizens in their bid to prevent further pollution of the Roubidoux aquifer and other sensitive waterways that rapidly are becoming unsuitable for human activity.
Miles Tolbert, Oklahoma secretary of the environment, recently sent a letter to the Missouri Department of Environmental Protection's Permits and Engineering chief Peter Goode. The letter outlines Oklahoma's concern over the methods in which the MDNR has used in furthering the permit process for MoARK Productions, a confined animal feeding operation located in Neosho that seeks to greatly expand its operations. Oklahoma's contention is that in not officially notifying them of the three Draft Missouri Operating Permits sought by MoArk, the MDNR broke a requirement of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
"Our apprehensions stem from the potential for degradation of water quality in northeastern Oklahoma resulting from the proposed permitted operations," Tolbert has written.
He wants assurances that poultry litter application will not occur in the Elk River watershed upstream from Oklahoma. He wants to know the exact location of the approximately 20,000 acres of leased land available for land disposal mentioned in the permits but not identified. He wants a condition added to the permits that requires that all poultry waste transported to Oklahoma be in compliance with the laws of his state.
As a CAFO in part located on streams that flow into the Elk River in Oklahoma and by definition a "point source discharge," he further wants to know how the facility will protect the EPA approved water quality standards as required by Arkansas v. Oklahoma, 503 U.S. 91, 112 S.Ct. 1046 (1992). And equally important, he asks, "What assurances are there that the proposed permits will not just be a continuation of past problems and an undocumented source of additional nutrient loads to an already sensitive area?"
The letter may be read in its entirety here.
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