Three million more chickens in southwest Missouri’s already polluted watersheds? Just say NO.

Ozark chapter home

May 23, 2005
Three million more chickens in southwest Missouri’s already polluted watersheds? Just say NO.
by Scott Dye, director, Sierra Club National Water Sentinels Program

MOARK, the nation’s third-largest egg producer, is seeking to expand its notorious egg productions facilities in southwest Missouri by adding approximately three million laying hens to its existing facilities. By even the Missouri Dept of Natural Resources’ most conservative estimates, these MOARK facilities would:

Produce over 50,000 tons of chicken manure – and spread them on waste application fields in a corner of the state where many of the area’s streams and rivers have already been identified by federal officials as polluted by livestock wastes.
Consume over 21.6 million gallons of water annually – in an area already facing dramatic drops in groundwater aquifer levels, which supplies drinking water to most of the region’s residents.
Create the waste equivalent of a city of over 522,000 people – then spread that waste, untreated, upon thousands of acres containing karst topography and losing streams, which recharge the area’s groundwater aquifers.

MOARK has already attempted to build this three million chicken operation in Welch, Oklahoma, where it was rejected by local residents, and in Riverton, Kansas, where it was again rejected by local residents. Don’t let MOARK dump even more wastes on Missouri.

For well over a decade, state officials have documented numerous operational problems at MOARK’s three existing Missouri egg production facilities, including overflowing or leaking waste pits, manure spills, broken waste pipelines, improper application of wastes, over-application of wastes, spreading wastes too close to losing streams and drinking water wells, improper disposal of dead animals, spilling wastes onto area highways, operating without certified wastewater operators, and operating without proper permits and engineering certifications.

To view a summary of MOARK’s abysmal environmental record at its three existing Missouri operations, click on the links below:

MOARK 7 complex, Newton County
MOARK Anderson complex, McDonald County
MOARK Topnotch complex, Jasper County

To view MDNR’s draft MOARK permits, now open for public comment, click on the links below:
http://www.dnr.state.mo.us/wpscd/wpcp/permits/pn/0122840.pdf
http://www.dnr.state.mo.us/wpscd/wpcp/permits/pn/0122572.pdf
http://www.dnr.state.mo.us/wpscd/wpcp/permits/pn/0123382.pdf

To tell Missouri’s Dept of Natural Resources “NO” to three million more chickens, send a signed comment letter, postmarked by May 29, 2005, to:

Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Water Pollution Program
Attn: Peter Goode, MOARK Permits
PO Box 176
Jefferson City, MO 65102