DNR has long history of bureaucratic inertia

"The whole operation at the Department of Natural Resources is a disgrace."
That may have been said by someone who read the Tuesday Joplin Globe and discovered that in all likelihood there is not much chance that tonight's public meeting will derail Moark's plans to expand its operation in Neosho.
Or it could have been said by someone who was shocked that it took so long for the state agency to uncover the cause of the smell that had been disturbing the city of Carthage for months. Only after Governor Matt Blunt and his father, Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt, intervened did this group of alleged experts manage to uncover something that was before its nose the entire time.
It could have been anyone who has had to deal with the bureaucratic inertia of the department, which remains the same no matter which political hack is appointed to be its director.
Those words were actually said in a letter written by the late State Senator Richard Webster, R-Carthage, and sent to Governor John Ashcroft in November 1984. Webster said, "The worst agency from the standpoint of accommodating the needs of our local citizenry is the Department of Natural Resources."
Webster believed the problem with the department was with its director, Fred Lafser, at that time. Webster's letter was written in an effort to help the city of Lamar in its efforts to get a landfill site approved. The department was dragging its heels and city officials were up against a deadline to buy the land.
Webster concluded his letter by saying, "The whole operation of the Department of Natural Resources is a disgrace and the operation of the environmental engineer is merely a reflection of the total incompetence of the department."
Senator Webster detailed to me his problems with the DNR (I was editor of The Lamar Democrat at the time) and I also talked them over with Lafser, who disagreed with the senator. He noted that there were always delays when there was opposition to a landfill by nearby residents.
Naturally, Lafser was surprised when I told him there had been no opposition to the landfill. He said, "We have had the Lamar facility considered to be an urgent situation. But this is not a simple process." Apparently, answering a simple question was not a simple process either.
Lafser told me, "One of the reasons we have difficulties is one half wants to get it through quickly and the other half doesn't want it."
I reminded him that no one had opposed the landfill. The conversation ended shortly afterward.
I ran into several similar situations with the DNR over the years, including the battle over installation of a hazardous waste incinerator at ICI in the early 1990s and the department's insistence right around the same time that a man with a felony conviction on his record and a history of environmental problems be allowed to operate a landfill in Jasper County.
With the pro-business bent of our state government, people should not expect any miracles to emerge from tonight's public meeting.