Callaway Farrowing’s proposed hog farm for the Hatton area, west of Kingdom City, took another step toward reality Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court denied the opponents’ request to transfer the case from the state appeals court in Kansas City.
As is its usual practice, the court gave no reason for denying the request.
If nothing else happens, Tuesday’s decision would leave in place the appeals court ruling that made the state Department of Natural Resources’ permit for the farm final.
However, under the court’s rules, Stephen Jeffery, the lawyer for the Friends of Responsible Agriculture, could still file a direct appeal with the Supreme Court — although there’s no guarantee of a different outcome.
Neither Jeffery nor Robert Brundage, the Jefferson City lawyer representing Callaway Farrowing, commented on the court’s action Tuesday.
The Friends group opposes plans for a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, on 20 acres south of Interstate 70 — and has tried to stop the hog operation since 2014, when Eichelberger Farms of Wayland, Iowa, formed Callaway Farrowing LLC to operate the breeding farm with plans to have 10,000 sows.
DNR issued a permit for the CAFO in November 2014, but the Friends organization challenged that at the Administrative Hearing Commission.
After the AHC recommended the Clean Water Commission approve the permit, the Friends group won an order from Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green that blocked two commissioners from voting because they had taken an unauthorized visit to the Callaway Farrowing location.
When the commission said a 3-2 vote in October 2016 had approved the permit, the Friends group won another order from Green — called a writ of mandamus — requiring the commission to take another vote because state law requires the commission to have at least four votes to approve a permit.
However, in December 2017, a three-judge appeals court panel blocked that order, saying the Friends group had used the wrong legal procedure to block the permit.
And it’s that ruling the high court upheld Tuesday.