Volume 11, Issue 2 March 10, 2005
Democracy on the decline!
There are several fast-tracked bills this session that are direct attacks on democracy and the public’s right to know. Bills introduced BY BIG INDUSTRY, FOR BIG INDUSTRY, such as the Dirty Secrets Bill HB 130 and the Bad CAFO Bills SB 187 and House companion HB 376, are priority issues for the new leadership. These bills are a direct assault on the basic principles of citizen’s right to know, local control and representative government.
The sponsors of the CAFO bills claim it is necessary to pass this legislation in order to keep Missouri laws in compliance with the new federal CAFO regulations.
Lo and behold, the appeals courts, stating they failed to adequately protect citizen’s health and the environment, recently overturned the federal CAFO regulations!! The CAFO bill sponsors also claim to be representing the family farmer, this despite the fact that the legislation only impacts the largest industrial operations. Only 437 out of 107,000 farms in the state have to meet these public accountability requirements;
less than one-half of one percent of farms in the state! Hardly representative government. The real intent of this legislation is the language that has nothing to do with federal regulations; the real intent of these bills is to take away the public notification requirement when these large facilities move in to an area and to take away local counties rights to pass health ordinances to protect their citizens.
The bill sponsors won’t be confused with the facts and studies documenting that these large factory farms are driving the family farmers out of business, are bad for the local economies and represent major health concerns for area residents. Last Wednesday Sierra Club members joined family farmers and union workers to protest this miscarriage of Democracy.
Farmers and Union workers also joined the Sierra Club Wednesday evening to voice opposition to the Dirty Secrets Bill. Once again the sponsor’s reasons for the bill seem a far cry form the real intent. HB 130 would give industry PRIVILEGE AND IMMUNITY from fines or prosecution as long as they self-report.
Industry claims closing the records to the public is necessary to provide an incentive for businesses to come forward and self-report violations, claiming proprietary information may be released to competitors. However, the Department of Natural Resources, DNR, has been protecting such information for over twenty years. Industry also claims this bill is necessary so good businesses can come forward and self-report without fear of fines or penalties. We agree businesses that take pro-active action to correct problems and protect workers and the environment should be given leniency, but again this is already what is done by DNR’s conference, persuasion and conciliation process. So why again is this legislation necessary???
The real intent of this bill is to hide violations from the public! The sponsors claims that this bill would not cover up anything that hurt humans or the environment as the language includes this exemption, actions that, "Resulted in serious actual harm, or may have presented an imminent and substantial endangerment, to human health or the environment." The problem here is who will determine what constitutes “serious actual harm” or “imminent and substantial endangerment”. Does this mean no one becomes immediately sick? What about long term cumulative impacts? If an industry had a slow leak that went undetected for a long period of time and exposing workers was later discovered under a self-audit and declared privileged as no one had an immediate illness, these records would not be available to workers who may later develop symptoms.
Joe Fallert, testifying for the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO, spoke of the workers concerns of giving companies the ability to close the records to the public and to workers. How will workers know if and to what they have been exposed? Joe raised the crucial point: it seems very ironic that this is being pursued at the same time the workers comp bill that just passed requires that workers identify the exact date and time of exposure to be eligible for workers comp.
Rolf Christen,
a family farmer, also gave compelling testimony about how he has lived next to a horrible polluting CAFO, he would not want to give them the ability to close their records to the public. It made a
huge impact having the unions and farmers testifying in opposition along side of us. My thanks to Joe and Rolf.
Call and write your legislators in opposition to these bills. We need to be outraged and get active! Tell them citizen’s right to know and local controls are NOT FOR SALE in Missouri! If you need contact information call the Sierra Club office at 800-628-5333, email us at
Ozark.chapter@sierraclub.org or log onto the Missouri General Assembly website:
www.moga.state.mo.us
Sierra Club Bill Tracking page.
ozark.chapter@sierraclub.org You can visit our website to check out the legislative bills we are currently tracking, visit http://missouri.sierraclub.org and select Green Report Track Legislation.