Alleged violations at Verona composting site referred to AG

A Springfield-based "landfill diversion" company that has vehemently defended itself against accusations it violated state environmental regulations is now facing legal action from the Missouri Attorney General's Office.

The alleged infractions occurred at a composting facility in Verona that's owned and operated by Black Oak Organics, a company formed in 2005 by partners Alan Chappell and Craig Post. Black Oak primarily collects and composts food waste from area restaurants and manufacturers; the company then sells the resulting mulch and compost for landscaping and erosion control purposes.

But repeated inspections by the state Department of Natural Resources between 2007 and 2009 revealed that storm water containing leachate and sludge was discharging into a nearby tributary of Honey Creek, said Leanne Tippett Mosby, acting director of DNR's Division of Environmental Quality. Leachate is water that collects contaminants as it trickles through wastes, pesticides or fertilizers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Such discharge could negatively impact groundwater, Mosby said.

Chappell has contended that the waste composted by Black Oak is hardly an environmental hazard.

"Any claimed potential negative environmental impact is virtually absurd when you're talking about lettuce and tomatoes and bread," Chappell said of his firm's waste products.

In August, DNR revoked Black Oak's permit to operate the composting facility and sent a draft consent order to the company that established an enforceable schedule for achieving compliance. When Black Oak did not agree to the order, DNR officials asked the Missouri Clean Water Commission to refer the case to the Attorney General's Office. During a Nov. 4 meeting in Columbia, the commission approved the request and recommended the Attorney General's office give Black Oak 30 days to negotiate before filing litigation.

Chappell and Post appeared before the commission - only after they formally requested an opportunity to rebut the state's position - to present their side of the case, which they said DNR officials have either omitted or distorted. Chappell said Black Oak provided commissioners with a 30-page packet that "systematically refuted" the state's version of events.

"They've basically painted a picture which is not factual," he said.

Chappell said Black Oak's relationship with DNR recently took an unexpected and adversarial turn, and he speculated that a highly publicized departmental housecleaning may be to blame. Gov. Jay Nixon suspended DNR Director Mark Templeton for mishandling the discovery of high E. coli levels at Lake of the Ozarks in May and fired former deputy director Joe Bindbeutel. Late last month, Templeton fired the department's top three administrators.

"A real shakeup would be a mild way to put it," Chappell said. "Everybody that was involved in the conception and the support of this type of (composting) approach in the state of Missouri is no longer with DNR."

DNR first gave its blessing to Black Oak's composting pilot project - a two-acre operation that accepted sawdust, yard refuse and food waste - in January 2005 via a general permit. And in August 2006, DNR approved the company's request to compost eggshell waste from Springfield-based American Dehydrated Foods Inc.

"Then we received a letter that said, 'New game,'" Chappell said.

In June 2007, DNR inspectors following up on an odor complaint noted the presence of leachate in a stream north of an on-site retention basin, as well as other permit violations.

According to DNR documents, Black Oak's operation had grown to more than two acres and its compost mixture comprised more than 5 percent biosolids. Consequently, state officials instructed the owners to apply for an operating permit and a construction permit related to improvements needed to contain the leachate.

DNR issued a construction permit to Black Oak in May 2008 for an earthen retention basin with a clay liner, an earthen clay pad for the composting area, berms around its perimeter and the installation of groundwater monitoring wells. A year later, though, inspectors who visited the site learned that construction had not begun and that effluent discharged from the retention basin into the stream "smelled strongly of organic waste and was black in color." The alleged violation was referred to the department's Water Pollution Control Branch for enforcement action.

"They want to continue operating while they do the improvements to the facility," Mosby said. "We're actually asking them to remove all materials from the site and then properly construct the facility."

Chappell said the Clean Water Commission did not take up Black Oak's request for a construction permit extension, and he expects the AG's office to address the request during its "finding of fact" period.

Last week, Chappell contacted the AG Office to begin negotiations, and he is hopeful the company will reach a resolution that will allow it to keep its composting operation intact.

"My concern is to continue to have an organics recycling facility and continue this type of work in the ... region," he said. "We're the ones that built this market in southwest Missouri.

"We're very anxious to resolve this."[[In-content Ad]]Editor Eric Olson contributed to this report.