ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has no full-time professional environmental engineers left working in the regulatory agency entrusted with overseeing more than 1,750 large-scale livestock feedlots.

State environmental regulators say four engineering vacancies have put the brakes on anybody getting a new facility started or expanding one because there is a backlog of between 20 and 30 permits and delays of an additional three months to review livestock wastewater permit applications.

The livestock-feeding industry says the lack of engineers at the state regulatory agency is not a pressing issue.

But environmentalists say the public should care because the biggest risks are groundwater and surface water contamination, and avoiding that requires sufficient engineering judgment to ensure feedlots are built correctly.