The Cooper County Circuit Court recently entered a judgement in a lawsuit filed against the Cooper County Public Health Center in 2019.

In August 2019, the Public Health Center adopted Regulation 6, which put into place reasonable safeguards to protect citizens of Cooper County. Regulation 6 imposed requirements relating to air quality and water quality concerns at concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The requirements imposed by the regulation addressed issues that were not directly regulated by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

In September 2019, several Cooper County residents filed the lawsuit challenging the requirements in the regulation.

In 2019 and 2021 the Missouri Legislature enacted bills which amended the law such that the health center could not impose local requirements affecting agricultural facilities that were more stringent than, inconsistent with or different from Missouri DNR requirements.

As a result of the legislation, the court determined that Regulation 6 exceeded the Missouri DNR CAFO requirements and was void. In August 2022, the court conducted a trial in which the jury determined that several Sunshine Law violations by the Health Center had occurred in 2018 and 2019.