Legislation backed by Missouri agriculture groups could slash the state’s clean water enforcement, jeopardizing millions of dollars in grants and raising the specter of a federal takeover.
A Missouri House committee Monday night considered legislation that would remove “nonpoint sources” from the definition of contamination source in the state’s water laws, which critics say would undermine state environmental regulators’ efforts to control farm runoff.
According to the fiscal note prepared for the bill, its passage could mean $4.7 million in lost funding for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, including 17 staff members.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Kurtis Gregory of Marshall, and agriculture groups that support his bill argue it offers farmers “regulatory certainty” in their operations. They fear as the law is currently written, state environmental regulators could start requiring a permit for anything and everything a farmer does.
The goal is “making sure that no one is going to be out there (wondering), ‘Where’s the next Whack-A-Mole coming from?’”
Among the bill’s chief proponents is the Missouri Corn Growers Association. The group told Missouri House members the bill would clarify existing law. Right now, the group’s director of public policy, Derek Steen, said, the state is obligated “to be issuing permits to every farmer in every activity that’s going on on every farm.”
“Whether you’re applying fertilizer, whether you’re putting in conservation practices, whether you’re running cattle on farm ground, is setting up the potential for a nonpoint source,” Steen said.
Steen said there “would be potentially millions of these sorts of permits out there,” though he acknowledged the state is not requiring such permits.
“Nonpoint source” pollution refers to indirect means through which water can become contaminated. Farm fertilizers and animal waste wash off of fields, contributing nitrate and phosphorus pollution to rivers and streams. Sediment can wash from a parking lot into storm sewers and, eventually, rivers.
In the Midwest, nonpoint source pollution is a major source of contamination because of the concentration of farms. Of the rivers listed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as “impaired waters,” 87% are there because of nonpoint source pollution.
Nutrient pollution from farms is primarily responsible for a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that’s currently larger than the state of Delaware. In some years, it has been as large as New Jersey.
The pollution flows down the Mississippi River into the gulf, contributing to algae blooms. When the algae dies, oxygen-consuming bacteria consumes the oxygen in the water, creating a dead zone where fish can’t survive.
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Categories: Missouri, General