Gov. Mike Parson signed House Bill 2134/1956 — the Sludge Bill — into law on July 9, effectively closing a loophole that once allowed meat-processing sludge to be land-applied under a permit from the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board.

Included in the new statutory regulations, which will be enforced by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR), are setback requirements from public buildings and residences for industrial sludge storage basins with a capacity of 2.5 million gallons or more.

Those requirements could nix the future operations of Denali Water Solutions’ Gideon and Evans basins in McDonald and Newton Counties. The basins, each with a capacity of some 15 million gallons, must be set back 3,500 feet from public structures or homes.

“[The basins] do not appear to meet the required setback distances established by the recently signed House Bill,” said Heather Peters, Chief of the Water Pollution Control Section of the DNR.

The use of the basins is already on hiatus as a result of Denali’s multiple, prior violations of the Missouri Clean Water Law. An Administrative Order of Consent (AOC), issued by the DNR and signed by Denali last fall, instructed [the company] to empty the basins. That work is still in progress, with the emptying of the Gideon basin given priority, after a tear in its liner allowed the basin’s contents to sink below it, where it could result in possible ground and water contamination.

“Denali has agreed to install monitoring wells near the Gideon basin to monitor basin integrity,” Heather Peters said.

Denali also submitted an application for a Missouri permit to store industrial processing waste in a 1 million-gallon storage tank near the small community of Phelps, in Lawrence County.

The Phelps tank, small compared to the Gideon and Evans’ storage basins, will be exempt from new setback regulations, which are reserved for containers 2.5 million gallons or larger, even though the stored materials will be the same.

According to the DNR’s website, Denali has also applied for permits to land-apply processing waste to acreage in Jasper and Lawrence Counties.

Vallerie Steele, of rural Fairview, who lives adjacent to Denali’s Evans basin, calls the passage of Missouri’s HB 2134/1956 “a good start.”

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” she said.

Steele said she would like to see legislation enacted to prevent sludge-haulers from bringing waste into Missouri from other states.

“We’ve become a dumping ground here, mostly because Missouri didn’t have regulations in place,” she said.

Last year, the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board (MoFCB) quit issuing fertilizer permits to companies who land-applied meat and other food-processing waste as fertilizer.

According to information shared by the MoFCB in a July 14 article in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, prior to last year’s permitting change, a total of “157 land applicators spread 618,825 tons of waste a year in Missouri.” (https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jul/14/tighter-waste-disposal-rules-in-missouri-cause/)

John Hoke, water protection program director for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, estimates one-third of the waste spread on land in Missouri affected by rule changes came from Arkansas, with another one-third coming from other states such as Oklahoma and Tennessee. The remainder comes from companies inside Missouri, Hoke told The Democrat-Gazette.

In addition to closing the fertilizer permit loophole and establishing setback requirements for storage basins, Missouri’s recently passed sludge bill also establishes a nutrient standard for land-applied industrial byproducts and calls for annual testing of those materials.

Steele believes that the upcoming months will reveal what further changes need to be addressed in Missouri’s next legislative session. She fears that this new legislation might be “a little, too late.”

“With the sludge that we’ve allowed to be brought in and spread in such heavy concentrations, it may have already done a lot of damage,” she said. “But, we’ll learn more in upcoming months, after required testing begins.”

Steele is a member of Stop Land Use Damaging our Ground and Environment (SLUDGE), a Newton/McDonald County citizens’ group that filed suit against the DNR last year, alleging that the department is guilty of not enforcing Missouri’s Solid Waste Law. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The passage of House Bill 2134/1956 represents a win for sponsors of the two bills, Missouri State Reps. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel, and Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, as well as State Sen. Jill Carter., R-Granby, who ushered the bill through the Senate.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to make sure our farmland and communities are protected while still allowing farmers to apply what can be a beneficial soil amendment,” Carter said.

Carter likened the Bill’s passage through the House and Senate as a tug-of-war, at times, between differing interests, but said it ultimately represents a symbiotic relationship, with all sides in final agreement.

Deaton calls the passage of the Bill “a small miracle.”

“It was one of only 13 House budget bills — of about 1,500 bills filed in the House and Senate — to make it to the governor’s desk,” Deaton said.

The topic of sludge will not be going away soon, however.

Two companies, Synagro Central and HydroAg Environmental, have permits pending with the DNR for the application of meat-processing waste and human biosolids to almost 10,000 acres in Barry County.

HydroAg will be a new name in Barry County. However, if their permits are approved, their practices may look familiar to residents, because HydroAg and Denali Water Solutions appear to share a common officer/engineer.

Marcus Tilley, co-founder of HydroAg Environmental, lists himself as an officer for that company on a 2021 permit application in Arkansas, as well as on the HydroAg application submitted to the Missouri DNR in 2023, to land-apply waste in Barry County.

More recently, Tilley’s name and signature appear on a formal letter written by Denali Water Solutions to the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in May 2024. His position in that letter is shown as “environmental engineer.”

Both HydroAg and Denali are subsidiaries of global investment firm TPG Growth.

With Denali under sanctions from the DNR, and while DNR permits are still pending for HydroAg, Barry County has experienced a lull in sludge land-application activities this year. Steele believes that lull is making southwest Missouri residents complacent.

“With Denali not land-applying so far this year, I think people have kind of forgotten how bad it was last year, with the smell and the flies and the spills,” she said.

If and when HydroAg’s permits are approved by the DNR, land-application in Barry County can escalate abruptly.

When permit details are finalized, the DNR will host a public hearing in Barry County to give residents the opportunity to make their voices heard regarding concerns and questions about the pending permits. Details about the hearing will be announced when finalized.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 17 at 6 p.m., the citizens’ group SLUDGE will host a fish-fry fundraiser and community informational meeting.

Hosts Vallerie Steele, Adam Perriman, Korrie Bateman and Taryn Tyler invite the community to come “learn about the sludge that’s being land-applied in the name of fertilizer and the regulations governing such applications.”

The event will be held at the H & H Pool Hall (formerly the VFW), at 473 State Highway 76 in Cassville.

Plates of fish, fries, cornbread, brown beans, coleslaw and a drink, prepared and served by locals, Donald Craig and Joe Trotter, will be available for $12 at the door. Advanced tickets can be purchased for $10, from locations that will be announced soon.

All proceeds will go toward SLUDGE’s ongoing lawsuit against the DNR for allowing what they allege is the department’s unlawful disposal of solid waste.