Lots of newly baptized environmental activists in the dark red, conservative Southwest Missouri communities of Pomme de Terre Lake, cattle ranching and water tourism country.

I’m still trying to sort out a month’s worth of news stories, flyers, meeting recollections, a petition drive* and letter writing campaigns, rumors of trucks seeking additional farmland to dump slaughterhouse waste on and legal bribes called gifts to public institutions, reviewing campaign finance and lobbyist records, and checking out three or more groups of concerned residents, property owners, businesses.

But one thing is certain, the people of Missouri’s Polk and Hickory Counties (Missouri Governor Mike Parson’s home counties), and maybe some others, are organizing against the application by Missouri Prime Beef Packers to dump 350,000 gallons of waste daily, after sketchy proprietary treatment, into the Pomme de Terre River, which feeds Pomme de Terre Lake.

To my knowledge, no one involved in any of these organizing efforts has any experience in organizing for change, or organizing to stop something, or protesting. There’s no public relations professional assistance. I enjoy a good “graphic arts is my passion” meme as much as the next person, but what’s going on here is something extra super grassroots, people taking on the system and powerful entities for the first time. It’s all from the heart and gut. That can be messy.

We got back from 29 days on the road to find a dozen printed and handmade signs along our stretch of road at the Lake. We missed at least one big meeting, with Missouri Department of Natural Resources present, and other smaller ones.

DNR, and maybe some local officials (none to date have publicly sided with residents against the permit application), will be at the next big meeting- 1 pm Sunday, October 1, at the pavilion at east end of Army Corps of Engineers Pomme de Terre Dam, 23697 County Road 218, Hermitage, Missouri.

I’ll write more about all this in a couple of days.

*I have not signed the petition because of disparaging comments on the petition page regarding employees of the facility.