SierraScape August - September 2003
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by McNeer Dillon
Some bills related to the environment were truly agreed and passed along to the Governor for his approval or veto. Summarized descriptions of those bills appear here together with indications of the Sierra Club attitudes towards them.
HB257 is an agricultural act proposed in the House of Representatives by Brian Munzlinger. Its main thrust is to free corporate animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from environmental regulations. The Sierra Club wants to keep CAFOs obligated to maintain clean land and water.
This act was passed under the guise of helping the small farmer. This is a hypocritical obfuscation of the truth. Class IB and IC CAFOs are exempted. Only the very largest CAFOs remain subject to regulation, the Class IA. This means, for example, that only those Corporate farms with 17,500 hogs or more are subject to regulation. Those with 17,499 or less are freed from regulation. They will not be required to get permits and will be exempt from the current requirement to notify adjacent landowners of an intent to locate nearby.
The truly small hog farmers have already been forced out of business by the corporate price cutting. The effect of this bill will be to multiply the number of corporate farms in Missouri having 17,499 hogs or a little less. They would be all completely unregulated and free to pollute lands and streams as they please. Few, if any, small farmers will realize any benefit. Only those little corporate farms with about 17,499 hogs will benefit. This act is nefarious. Its true purpose is obfuscated and misrepresented.
HB257 contravenes provisions of the federal EPA regulations for turkey, chicken and hog CAFOs and, if signed by the Governor, would be subject to law suits intending to prevent the DNR from enforcing it. We hope that Governor Holden will veto this bill. We think he probably will.
HB257 contains voluminous language and is filled with trivia such as naming an "official state grass," and making changes to existing laws. It will bore and belabor the mind, disinteresting people before they read far enough to discover or realize the massive water pollution that the bill enables and facilitates. Perhaps this contributed to its passage, as it was rushed through the process at the end of the session. Many legislators probably voted without reading the act carefully.
HB122 was proposed by Robert Thane Johnson. This act changes the expiration date of Kansas City public mass transportation sales tax to January 1, 2009 and alters some expenditures. The Sierra Club does not oppose this bill.
SB69 was proposed by Senator Anita Yeckel. It created a Small Business Fairness Board to serve as a liason between regulating agencies (primarily the DNR) and businesses. This Board will consider business requests to review agency rules. This will serve to delay or overturn the enforcement of regulations. It adds an unnecessary additional layer of government. The Sierra Club opposes this idea; its approval rests with Governor Holden.
SB555 was proposed by Senator Peter Kinder. This act establishes the abilities of cities and an aluminum smelter to purchase energy outside of PSC oversight. The Sierra Club does not want the purchase or sale of energy to be set beyond the purview of the PSC, believing this a step towards deregulation. We oppose this bill.
SB606 was proposed by Senator Coleman. The bill allows the DNR to convey land in certain situations. The DNR may trade up to 5 acres of land with adjacent land owners to resolve park boundary conflicts, so long as the DNR receives equal or greater fair market value in exchange. The Sierra Club approves this bill.