A hearing is scheduled for the groups involved with the proposed 10,000 hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in Kingdom City.
Following a discovery request from the Friends of Responsible Agriculture (FORAG) for information gathered during tours of two CAFOs in March and April, Clean Water Commission (CWC) Chairman Todd Parnell withheld personal notes taken during the tours, according to a motion to compel document.
FORAG wanted access to the documentation as members of the group were not made aware of the tours and were not invited to attend, but five commissioners and attorneys representing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Callaway Farrowing, LLC. gathered information from the tours that was not presented as evidence during a previous hearing, the Fulton Sun previously reported.
On September 24, the Missouri CWC stated, "Any documents prepared by an individual commissioner for his or her personal use is therefore not relevant to the work of the Commission in deciding this appeal," after claiming that the documentation didn't exist, according to the motion.
Greg Caldwell and Kurt Boeckman, who work for Missouri DNR, testified in their depositions that Parnell had taken notes during the CAFO tours and then read them to other commissioners after the fact.
"They dug their own hole," Stephen Jeffery said.
Jeffery is the attorney representing FORAG in the case and made the discovery request back in June.
The CWC will have until Nov. 9 to present the documentation. If the documentation is not presented prior to the hearing, Jeffery believes the judge will determine that the notes will have to be presented before moving forward.