Fairview-area residents slate public meeting on sludge issue
Nov. 8—FAIRVIEW, Mo. — A public meeting will be held Friday night by a committee of residents seeking state action to sanction or regulate an Arkansas company that is storing an odorous waste product in basins on rural farms and spreading it as fertilizer on farmland.
The meeting is being held by a group calling itself SLUDGE, which stands for "Stop Land Use Damaging our Ground and Environment." It is slated at 7 p.m. at the Fairview Community Center to present information about the group's effort to seek a court order to require the company operating the basins to shut down its operations in Missouri.
Vallerie Steele, a rural Fairview resident who lives across the road from a storage basin operated by Denali Water Solutions of Russellville, Arkansas, said the meeting is intended to provide information to residents, county officials and legislators about problems created by the sludgelike material stored in the basins.
A spill occurred Oct. 20 at one on Quince road near her home. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has been investigating the incident.
Denali said in a statement at the time that the 6,000-gallon spill was caused by a break in a hose that was being used to move liquid food waste from the storage basin for application on a field.
Brooks McNeill, an environmental specialist with the DNR who gathered information about the incident, said the spilled material ran onto Quince Road and into a ditch. Denali workers at the site started cleanup operations there, and the company reported the spill to the DNR's environmental emergency response spill line and the DNR's Southwest Regional Office in Springfield. By the next morning, the spilled material had been removed and the road and ditch had been cleaned, McNeill said.
Asked if Denali held a permit to operate the lagoon, McNeill said the company was in the process of obtaining one. The permit is required under the Missouri Clean Water Law and Missouri Clean Water Commission Regulations. In the meantime, the company is operating under an enforcement document issued by the DNR that addresses regulatory requirements, McNeill said.
In response, Steele's committee has hired an environmental attorney, Stephen Jeffery of St. Louis, who has filed a lawsuit against the DNR. The lawsuit is pending in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City.
Residents are affected by what Steele described as "horrendous" odors and such things as insect infestations. There also is a concern about runoff of the fertilizer substance polluting the area's waterways.
Denali said at the time of the Fairview spill that the material is food processing residuals that "are non-hazardous byproducts of wastewater treatment from nearby food facilities. The consistency of the material is similar to a milkshake. Because it contains significant amounts of nitrogen, it is a valuable soil amendment for farmers."
Another lagoon is operated near Longview in McDonald County.
On Wednesday, Samuel Liebl, director of communications for Denali, said in response to the group's statements about state permitting that "we are cooperating with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and are going through the department's permitting process to receive land application permits."
In regard to the odor, Liebl said, "Across Denali's operations, we work at every step to minimize odor. In Missouri specifically, we are investing in solutions for odor reduction at our storage basins."
Steele said the SLUDGE group wants its attorney to explain how he expects the lawsuit to proceed.
"Lawsuits are great, but the fix is going to be legislation," she said. "States have different legislation. Some have more strict rules than we do. Our legislation is extremely loose."
