Feb. 17, 2004
This is a joint press release from Sierra Club  and three other groups.

Contact:            
Terry Spence, CLEAN President (660) 947-3873
Rolf Christen, CLEAN Director (660) 874-4714
Scott Dye, Sierra Club Water Sentinels Director (573) 874-5024
Charlie Speer, Speer Law Firm (816) 472-3560

State Set to Settle Again with PSF-ContiGroup

Latest Agreement to Include $333,000 Fine, 6-year Extension on Waste System Improvements; Citizens Again Shut Out of Settlement Process

Green City – Representatives for Citizens Legal Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) today released details of an impending settlement between state officials and swine giants Premium Standard Farms and its owner ContiGroup (PSF-ContiGroup). The latest settlement between the state and PSF-Conti may be filed in court as soon as today, Feb 17.

The proposed settlement builds upon a 1999 settlement between the nation’s second-largest factory hog enterprise and the state, which required the company to pay a $650,000 fine and agree to install up to $25 million in unspecified “next generation technologies” at its sprawling confinement complexes by May 2004. To date, just over half that money has been spent, and pollution problems and complaints from neighbors continue unabated.

The state sued PSF-Conti again in June 2002, alleging multiple spills of liquefied feces and urine, fish kills and Notices of Violation, as well as over-application of wastes, waste dumping and failure to report known violations. Details of the current proposed settlement were revealed in a recent PSF-ContiGroup filing submitted to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the SEC filing, PSF would agree to pay a $333,000 fine, and would be obligated to spend whatever is necessary to install and implement “next generation technology” at its largest facilities by 2010 – an extension of 6 additional years. According to PSF neighbor and CLEAN director Rolf Christen, that doesn’t cut it.

“In 2010, PSF will have been operating in Missouri for 21 years, since 1989. It will be 14 years after the state’s first lawsuit against PSF-Conti . It will be 11 years after the state’s 1999 settlement with the companies. It will be 8 years after the filing of the state’s most recent litigation. Our families are losing hope that this state will ever resolve this company’s environmental problems,” said Christen.

PSF neighbor and CLEAN president Terry Spence was also troubled that PSF-Conti’s neighbors were again excluded from the state’s settlement discussions. Maybe some day our state officials will wake up and realize that including the neighbors most impacted by PSF-Conti’s pollution in any settlement negotiations would be productive to finding a solution to the ongoing problems,” said Spence. “But we’re not holding our breath.”

CLEAN representatives also fired off a tersely worded letter to USEPA complaining that they were excluded from the settlement negotiations, a right guaranteed the rural citizens’ group in EPA’s federal 2001 consent decree with the companies.

The 2001 federal decree may be pathetically weak, but we intend to see it enforced to the letter of the law,” said Spence.

Sierra Club spokesperson Scott Dye offered guarded praise for a provision of the proposed settlement that appears to mandate the elimination of lagoon sprayfield technology at some of the hog giant’s largest operations, a longstanding demand of opponents of factory swine confinements.

“The proposed elimination of lagoons and waste sprayfields would be a significant step forward in reforming this renegade industry,” said Dye. “Until this happens, these types of facilities will continue to degrade the environment and menace their neighbors.

CLEAN’s families and other parties suffering from PSF-ContiGroup’s continued pollution don’t intend to wait for any more promised ‘fixes’ from the state or the company. More than 60 individual nuisance suits have been filed against the company since August 2002. Additional suits are being planned.

In 1999, a jury awarded $5.2 million to 52 of ContiGroup’s neighbors for ongoing nuisance claims. A Missouri appellate court upheld the judgment in 2001, writing that “…Appellant could reduce the odor, flies and wastewater spills emanating from its hog farms to the point where they do not constitute a substantial interference with Respondents' use and enjoyment of their property. Respondents demonstrated that such abatement was reasonably practicable and economically feasible."

Charlie Speer of the Speer Law Firm in Kansas City is representing PSF-Conti’s neighbors in the current nuisance actions. “While the state and the companies continue to pursue an ultimate remedy to the continued air and water pollution, we will continue to hold these companies legally accountable for nuisance behavior that destroys their neighbors’ quality of life and decreases neighbors’ unalienable rights to use and enjoy their properties,” said Speer. “Citizen litigation has always been the bedrock of environmental law, and barring effective and timely action from state and federal officials, will remain the driving force in reforming this polluting industry,” Speer said. “Unfortunately, this disgraceful chapter of Missouri’s regulatory history is far from over.”

Since January 1999, PSF-Conti and its contract operations have had 102 spills of liquefied feces, at least a dozen occurring in just the last three months of 2003. Since June 2002, citizens have filed at least 418 odor complaints against the operations with state regulators.

MO Attorney General 573.751.8815 / MO DNR 573.751.3195 / EPA 913.551.7448 / PSF 816.472.7675