Other Views: Residents, judge perform DNR duty

The Joplin Globe

We want to celebrate and call this a victory.

In reality, it’s a tragedy.

A Cole County circuit judge has upheld a lawsuit filed against the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The court action overturns DNR’s approval of a concentrated animal feeding operation a stone’s throw away from the state historic site of Arrow Rock.

According to the conclusions of Judge Patricia S. Joyce, CAFOs now cannot be built within 15 miles of the Arrow Rock site – or any other state historic site or park, according to the interpretation of DNR Director Doyle Childers.

That means the number of future CAFOs could be severely limited in Southwest Missouri. A corporation would be hard-pressed to find enough suitable land far enough away from similar sites in Barry, Barton, Jasper, McDonald and Newton counties.

That sounds like a victory worthy of major celebration, considering the damaging environmental impacts CAFOs have.

But the decision only highlights the willful failure of the Department of Natural Resources to protect the state’s resources.

Arrow Rock falls directly under the purview and protection of DNR. Yet DNR easily granted a permit to a farm that would have housed 4,800 hogs only two miles from the village of Arrow Rock and the Sappington Cemetery. If it weren’t for the attention of people concerned about the environmental impact of the hog farm, it likely would have been built.

In other words, residents and the courts had to do DNR’s work for it.

Nothing better describes DNR’s failure than the attitude of its director: Childers refers to this as some of the worst “judicial activism” he has ever seen.

Ironic, considering Judge Joyce cited DNR’s injudicious inactivity within her conclusions. This case happened not because a judge wanted to change the law, but because Arrow Rock residents were tired of DNR not enforcing it strongly enough.

Make no mistake: Joyce’s decision is a major victory for anyone who appreciates the natural beauty of the Ozarks.

But the court’s decision demonstrates a tragedy of tremendous proportion, because it shows that residents cannot trust DNR to do its job.