By AP/KWMU
Kansas City, Mo. – Some livestock companies may have found a way to slip their farms past Missouri's pollution regulations.
The state’s largest farms require permits and extensive waste-management plans. Smaller ones have fewer regulations.
The Kansas City Star reports rather than building their own megafarms, companies are working with several smaller farms, each of which has fewer animals than would trigger the state pollution regulations.
The practice is legal, but it could create pollution problems.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says no one knows exactly how many farms with confined animals and waste lagoons are not being regulated because they are exempt from state law.