Missouri may allow meatpacker to release wastewater into an already-contaminated river

State regulators are considering a request from Missouri Prime Beef Packers, which processes more than 3,500 cattle per week near Pleasant Hope, to treat wastewater from its operation using microorganisms and discharge it directly into the Pomme de Terre River.
A southwest Missouri river already contaminated with E. coli could soon receive up to 350,000 gallons of wastewater daily from a meatpacking facility.

And while the facility is expected to treat the wastewater for contamination before releasing it, critics of the proposal are worried about the operators’ history of violations at the site.

“It would be even worse than what they were currently doing — discharging it on land,” said Marisa Frazier, of the Missouri chapter of the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club.