by Carla Klein, Chapter Program Director
A session that began as an uphill battle ended in victory on four priority issues for the Sierra Club and our conservation partners. This session’s priorities included defeating bad CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) legislation, the Audit Privilege/Dirty Secrets Bill as well as promoting the passage of placement of the Parks & Soils tax renewal on the ballot and the renewal of the waste tire fee program.
The success of the Conservation Lobby Day served as a catalyst to make these victories possible. This year sixty-five individuals attended Conservation Lobby Day, representing twenty-two different organizations! Co-sponsoring groups launched a targeted lobbying effort on our priority legislation. We sent out teams of coalition members to lobby jointly. This show of broad base support was a very successful new approach. Legislators took note of the diversity of organizations committed to conservation issues. Speaking with a united voice is very powerful.
The defeat of the CAFO Bill was a particularly hard fought victory for the environment, family farmers, rural communities and Missouri’s agricultural economy. The CAFO Bill, House Committee Substitute Senate Bill HCS SB 187, was another attempt by industrialized agriculture to once again roll back provisions that have held the factory farms accountable to the communities where they locate. Working with an extraordinary coalition of family farmers, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Concerned Citizens’ for Platt County, County Commissioners, Missouri Farmers Union and other supporters, we battled key provisions of the bad CAFO Bill: taking away neighbor notification when these huge facilities move in next door and grandfathering the counties that currently have existing health ordinances.
After winning these concessions, a House Committee Substitute was offered that would have made it impossible for counties to pass health ordinances. The new bill required counties to prove that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regulations were not protective enough. This turns environmental regulation on its head by requiring the public to prove a negative. Rather than industry having to show they would not adversely impact the citizen’s health or the environment, which is the current process, it places the burden of proof on citizens. That is not how environmental law works. Companies that reap financial benefits from externalizing their waste into a community are suppose to bear the burden of showing the impacts will be minimal. Sierra Club has battled for twelve years to see the laws upheld on some of these facilities. We have seen the fish kills and have documented the health impacts from these factory farms. However, proving a new facility will also create these problems before it is built is impossible. This would have been an employment act for attorneys and those with the deepest coffers would win. Who do you think would have more money to hire expert witnesses? Premium Standard Farms and Cargill or your County Commissioners?
In order to pass a health ordinance counties would have to wait until someone became sick or fish were floating. Existing CAFOs would be grandfathered. In essence the legislation would force counties to live with minimum state protection. Communities should be able to determine the direction their counties want to take. It is important to note that these health ordinances only impact one half of one percent of farms in Missouri, not family farmers, only the large industrialized facilities that can produce as much waste as a city.
The coalition partners remained steadfast in their opposition. The dedication and leadership of Representatives Wes Shoemyer and Belinda Harris helped us deliverer an unexpected blow to industrialized farming with the defeat of the CAFO Bill during the last week of session. Bill sponsors Representative Guest, Senator Cauthorn and Republican leadership spent the final days applying pressure to House members to change their vote. The CAFO Bill was defeated by a close vote of 84 No, 77 Yes. The Republican leadership was extremely unhappy and was not willing to loose without a fight. The battle went down to the wire.
The final day of session, Friday the 13th, turned out to be bad luck for big pig, corporate agriculture. One final attempt was made to bring the bill back up for reconsideration. A motion offered by Republican Representative Mark Wright of Springfield once again brought the bill before the body. Thanks to the wisdom and great leadership of Representative Martin Rucker of St. Joseph the Republicans could not pull the extra votes needed to pass the bill and it was laid over. When the gavel ended the session shortly before 6pm on Friday we joined our coalition partners by celebrating in the halls of the capitol.
The second victory was the sound defeat of the Dirty Secrets bill; legislation allowing businesses to self-audit and close their records to the public. Once again coalition work was key. Our friends in the AFL-CIO and the Steelworkers really came through by lobbying and testifying in opposition to HB 130. Democratic members on the Conservation & Natural Resource Committee and two, independent, Republican candidates: Representatives Dennis Wood, Kimberling City and Ray Weter, Nixa remained steadfast in their opposition to the Dirty Secrets Bill. With their help we kept House Bill HB130 from ever coming out of committee.
Senate Joint Resolution SJR 1 allowing the Parks and Soils Tax to automatically be placed on the ballot for a vote of the people was another priority item for the conservation community. I’m happy to report the passage of this bill. Supporters of state parks and soil conservation will no longer have to go out and get signatures via the initiative petition process to renew this funding. This important funding will automatically be put on the ballot for a vote of the people every ten years.
Funding for the Waste Tire Fee program was finally reauthorized this year by rolling the program funding into an omnibus DNR funding bill. Unfortunately this victory was tempered by the overall funding for DNR programs once again taking severe cuts. The funds for the solid waste, hazardous waste and waste tire fee programs are inadequate, short about $1.8 million. The results of these cuts are a poorly funded program, with over burdened employees with less time and resources to enforce environmental laws. Additional changes in HCS SS #2 SCS SB 225 include: troubling provisions that give power to the DNR Director to use unencumbered moneys for “environmental emergencies determined by the director” the bill also lowers the cost for hazardous waste to be brought into the state.
Sierra Club members across the state should be very proud of these accomplishments. Your commitment and willingness to make the phone calls and write letters made a huge difference. The power of the thank you calls to legislators when they voted the right way on the CAFO legislation was priceless. The secretaries were so grateful and impressed because legislators rarely hear from anyone other than to complain. The power of positive reinforcement really pays off. My sincere appreciation to all of our dedicated members.
For additional end of session information check our website: missouri.sierraclub.org
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