May 27—JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A circuit judge in Cole County recently closed a legal loophole that could have allowed wastewater processing companies to restart land application in Southwest Missouri with waste from various food processing industries.

The process has been controversial, with meetings organized by area residents drawing hundreds of people who called the product “sludge” and argued that the practice threatens their property values and water and could threaten their health.

The companies argue that the product being applied is recycled, safe and beneficial as fertilizer, and gives it away for free to participating farmers.

Judge Cotton Walker of the 19th Judicial Circuit issued a summary judgment earlier this month in a lawsuit filed last year by Denali Water Solutions Inc. and Synagro Central LLC. That lawsuit sought to force the Missouri Fertilizer Board to reverse its 2023 decision to stop issuing permit exemptions to the companies, which allowed them to spread the material on agricultural land. The exemption allowed the companies to spread the waste without a clean water permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Walker ruled in favor of the Missouri Fertilizer Board, saying state law “does not require the Fertilizer Control Board to issue permits to petitioners in order for them to collect organic industrial wastewater from food processors and provide it to farmers without charge.”

This means Denali must operate under DNR regulations, as it has since June 30, 2023, when the board announced it would no longer issue exemptions for companies offering the waste product at no cost to the landowner.

Initially, the DNR said it would not stop the companies from applying sludge and storing it in large basins that had been built in Southwest Missouri, but that changed Nov. 29, 2023, when DNR announced it was reversing itself. The state agency cited an incident Oct. 3, 2023, near Southwest City in McDonald County when residents complained about the overapplication of waste, which in wet weather ran into a stream that feeds into the Elk River. The state also cited a history of problems with the applications process and the companies.

Denali was ordered to stop all land application of the waste anywhere in Missouri.

On Jan. 31, Denali and the DNR reached an agreement that required Denali to empty its basins in Newton County, McDonald County and Randolph County until the company could be properly permitted through the DNR’s wastewater permitting process. Those basins held up to 14 million gallons of the waste product.

Denali released a statement in the wake of the judgment.

“While we do not agree with the court’s decision, we will continue to comply with the state’s rules and to collaborate with regulators and policymakers to manage residuals for the benefit of Missouri’s environment and communities,” the company said. “Recycling of food processing residuals is essential for Missouri’s food industry, which employs thousands of Missourians and feeds the U.S. Denali will continue to provide this recycling service in Missouri and to work with farmers to use food processing residuals as a cost-saving fertilizer.”

St. Louis attorney Stephen Jeffrey, who represents residents of Newton and McDonald counties in a lawsuit against the DNR, trying to force it to more strictly enforce rules on sludge storage and application, said the ruling makes it harder for Denali to go back to spreading sludge on Missouri fields. Jeffrey represents a residents group, Stop Land Use Damaging our Ground and Environment, or SLUDGE, in Newton and McDonald counties, and Citizens of Randolph County Against Pollution, or CRAP, in Randolph County north of Columbia, where Denali has a wastewater basin under construction but not yet filled.

“Is this a win for people in Southwest Missouri, with SLUDGE and CRAP and those groups?” Jeffrey said. “It confirms that the companies can’t rely on or take a pass based on the old status quo by getting these unrestrictive permits from the Fertilizer Control Board. Denali and Synagro Central and other companies had these permits issued from the Fertilizer Control Board for years and DNR wasn’t even interested in them before last year.”