Green again blocks hog farm vote

Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green has again blocked the Clean Water Commission's plans to vote on a proposed hog farm in Callaway County.

Eichelberger Farms Inc., based in Wayland, Iowa, wants to operate the Callaway Farrowing LLC confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, near Hatton, with 9,520 swine more than 55 pounds and another 800 swine under 55 pounds.

Green on Tuesday issued a preliminary order prohibiting the commission and its chairman, Buddy Bennett, from holding a vote April 5, as currently scheduled.

Green ordered the commission, the state Department of Natural Resources and Callaway Farrowing to file their answers to the petition seeking to prohibit a commission vote on or before April 24, and refrain from all actions until further order.

The Friends of Responsible Agriculture - the group formed in July 2014 to oppose the proposed CAFO - asked Green for the latest action, noting the issue is listed on the April 5 commission agenda with a department recommendation "the Commission uphold the permit as originally issued by the Department."

However, the Friends group's petition - for a court order blocking the commission vote - reminds the court the commission already has failed to approve the proposal twice.

On Oct. 5, the petition noted, commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the proposed CAFO, but state law requires "all final orders or determinations or other final actions by the commission shall be approved in writing by at least four members of the commission."

The group won a Dec. 21 order from Green that the vote failed to approve the proposal.

At a Jan. 5 meeting, the commission voted 2-2 on the proposal - again failing to pass it.

"It cannot be disputed that the legal effect of these two votes is that the Callaway Farrowing Permit MOGS10485 was not approved," Chesterfield attorney Stephen G. Jeffery wrote in his nine-page motion asking for the new order.

Additionally, Callaway Farrowing should have asked the court to review the Oct. 5 vote but didn't, failing "to exhaust its available administrative remedies."

Jeffrey also argued no state law gives the Clean Water Commission authority to conduct a second (or third) vote on the Callaway Farrowing permit.