Fischer proposes CAFO ordinance

In this March 31, 2017 photo, Callaway County Commissioner Roger Fischer points to the western district of the county, highlighted in orange and green. The townships affected by his proposed health ordinance are outlined in black in the lower map.
In this March 31, 2017 photo, Callaway County Commissioner Roger Fischer points to the western district of the county, highlighted in orange and green. The townships affected by his proposed health ordinance are outlined in black in the lower map.

After four months of research, Callaway County Western District Commissioner Roger Fischer presented his proposed health ordinance to the rest of the commission Wednesday.



"I know this is a contentious issue," he said.

The proposed ordinance, if passed, would apply only to new confined animal feed operations, or CAFOs, which meet certain parameters in six western Callaway townships. It would require qualifying farms to register with the County Health Department and maintain a specified distance from populated and recreational areas.

Background

Fischer's proposal addresses CAFOs and the areas where they spread waste. According to Fischer, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Clean Water Commission already regulate CAFOs, but he believes the distances between CAFOs and people aren't enough.

"The animals are kept in close confinement, and the temperature is right for diseases to begin," Fischer said. "Using antibiotics to treat diseases can end up creating stronger bacteria."

Fischer said these antibiotic-resistant bacteria can remain in the soil where waste is disposed of and possibly spread through water and air. He claimed in order to protect people, CAFOs should be kept further away from populated areas.

The research supports his claim.

"(Antibiotic resistant bacteria) puts anyone who's around the waste products at risk," clinical microbiologist Leo Patrick Smith said.

Smith is the medical director of the University of Missouri's clinical microbiology lab. He's also part of an antibiotic stewardship committee at the university's health center. Fischer consulted with him while developing the ordinance.

When an animal in a CAFO gets sick, they are typically treated with antibiotics. Those antibiotics - and the microbes they're supposed to kill - end up in the animal's waste.


"If the antibiotic kills 99.9 percent (of the disease), that's only three decimal points," Smith said. "If you have a billion bugs, that leaves 1 million bugs."

In the warm, nutrient-rich environment a CAFO provides, those "bugs" multiply quickly. Some - like deadly Clostridium difficile - can survive in the environment for a long time and possibly infect people.

"If it gets sold as manure, who knows who might put it in their back yard," Smith said.

According to Smith, C. difficile that can resist last-resort antibiotics have popped up in an Indiana pig farm. He said it is not a hypothetical problem.

He encourages testing waste products for various diseases before selling it as fertilizer. Fischer's ordinance require testing liquid waste products for four diseases, including E. coli and MRSA.

Increasing the distance between CAFOs and people will help, Smith added.

"It will eliminate typically the odor for people," he said. "If you smell it, there's a particle there. But just the setback alone without testing will still come up short."

The ordinance

Fischer wanted to be clear the vast majority of Callaway County's farms should not be affected by his proposed ordinance.

"It protects 95-98 percent of farmers," Fischer said. "What I'm seeking is not to ban CAFOs but to have adequate setbacks to protect residents."

First, it would only apply to the six townships in Callaway County with a population density high enough to require additional regulation of CAFOs - farming operations are not allowed within Fulton city limits.

The townships include Bourbon, West Fulton, Round Prairie, Guthrie, Cedar (which includes New Bloomfield) and Summit (which includes Holts Summit).

"I don't believe there's any reason to subject people in dense population areas to diseases that may develop due to CAFOs being there," Fischer said.

Second, the ordinance would only affect newly established CAFOs which contain 1,000 or more animal units at a density of 150 or more per acre. An animal unit is equivalent to one beef cow, 2.5 pigs, 10 sheep or 55 turkeys.

Fischer believes new CAFOs may come to Callaway County soon because a new, large milk-processing plant is under construction in Columbia. The plant may seek shorter transport distances by partnering with new dairy CAFOs in Callaway.

"They may already be filling out permit paperwork," Fischer said.

The ordinance draws on similar ordinances from Linn and Cedar counties. Fischer said Linn County's has been tested in court.

It includes a number of stipulations. For one, it requires all qualifying CAFOs to register themselves and the land where they spread their waste with the county health department. They're already required to register with the DNR. Fischer said information will be publicly available and may be useful when planning the development of formerly CAFO-occupied land.

"Would playing baseball on that land kick bacteria into the air?" he asked.

There are stipulations aimed at preventing waste from reaching water sources, such as requiring waste lagoons to be lined and preventing animal waste or wastewater from being applied on land with more than a 10 percent slope.

It also provides guidelines for setbacks - distances that must be maintained between CAFOs or their waste-spreading land and occupied dwellings, city limits, recreational areas and more. For example, a class 1C CAFO (1,000-2,999 animal units) could not be any closer than half a mile of an occupied dwelling.

The complete text of the proposed ordinance is available from Fischer upon request.

Reception

Not everyone is fully supportive of the proposal.

"I have a lot of issues with it," Eastern District Commissioner Randy Kleindienst said. "I'm a private property rights advocate, and every time you start chipping away at that, I'm against it."

Kleindienst said businesses such as CAFOs may find Callaway County's lack of ordinances attractive and may be dissuaded from coming to the area by new restrictions.

Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann mentioned there's potential for legal opposition, as CAFOs may feel unfairly targeted by the ordinance.

"Part of me struggles with making an ordinance that applies to only certain parts of the county," Jungermann said. "I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, but we need to make sure our legal people have looked at it."

Fischer said he's already had one lawyer examine the ordinance but agreed to further legal counsel. He also mentioned current CAFO operators in the county have expressed opposition to him.

Before the ordinance moves forward, the commission will continue to consult with legal counsel, seek public input and confer with the county health department about their potential new record-keeping duties.

The commission will reconvene to discuss the ordinance in about two weeks. In the meantime, the public may submit comments by mailing them to Petitions, Box 6314, Fulton, Missouri, 65251.