Key Points of Sen. Nodler's Legislation

Missouri State Senator Gary Nodler has released the Key Points of legislation that he filed December 1, 2005:
(1) Require the Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources(MDNR) to establish a timeline for decision-making within 90 days of receipt of a permit application. The director would be allowed to amend the timeline once.
(2) Increase fines for multiple violations. If there is more than one violation of the same type within 36 months, the fine would be increased by a multiple equal to the number of violations within that time period.
(3) Establish a definition for "persistent violator". If there are six similiar violations in a 12-month period or 12 violations withing 36 months, the offending party would be deemed a chronic or persistent violator, and would forfeit the permit to operate.
(4) Empower the MDNR to apply the statutory penalties for air and water violations to odor violations, which have been developed by administrative rule by the MDNR.
(5) Apply to large livestock operations called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) and to entities that convert aniumal waste into oil.
The Joplin Globe, Tuesday, November 29, 2005, www.joplinglobe.com . Sen Nodler said that "The Bill does not change the rules and regulations. It just gives teeth to the rules." He explained that a company that repeatedly violates the rules would forfeit its permit to operate.

I appreciate Sen. Nodler's effort to put teeth in the rule. However, we need to change the level at which the 'scent-o-meter' qualifies a violation. MDNR made 21 "official" visits to Renewable Environmental Solutions LLC (RES) in September 2005, and another 21 in October 2005, and was able to smell an odor, but not document it. I don't know what the benchmark is currently, but it needs to be adjusted downward. If it stinks, they out to be cited and fined.