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JEFFERSON CITY — Farm groups in Missouri are again pushing a plan to limit public access to a state database that records the trillions of gallons of water used by more than 1,400 major users.

In a House committee Monday, Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, pitched his plan to bar state environmental regulators from releasing the identities of farms, power companies and industrial businesses that use large amounts of one of the state’s public resources.

The same measure failed to advance in the Legislature last year, but agriculture groups including the Missouri Soybean Association and the Missouri Farm Bureau are pressing for the plan again.

Diehl, a farmer, said the proposal was inspired after rice producers visited his office seeking to restrict access to .

He said he believes closing the records will encourage more businesses to report their water usage to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“We have a low amount right now of people reporting,� Diehl said.

While the measure specifies that all information provided by a major water user to the Department of Natural Resources’ Geological Survey Division is confidential and cannot be released to the public, the agency would be allowed to disclose in the aggregate for each county the number of major water users and the amount of water used.

Any employee who discloses the information would be subject to disciplinary action and could be found guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

Rep. Bridget Walsh-Moore, a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Democrat, said the issue of water use is becoming a major issue across state lines.

“We’re going to really have to start monitoring our water. Water is a natural resource that we’re really going to have to lock in,� Walsh-Moore said.

For now, however, DNR is not restricted in releasing information to the public about the state’s largest water users.

According to a database obtained by the Post-Dispatch last year through the Sunshine Act, there are 1,395 water users capable of withdrawing or diverting 100,000 gallons of water or more per day from the state’s abundant streams, rivers, wells and springs.

The list and an accompanying draft report for the program in 2022 shows that an estimated three trillion gallons of water was used primarily for electric generation by utilities like Ameren Missouri, representing about 86% of the total amount of water reported for the year.

The next largest users were cities and local governments, which operate drinking water facilities and wastewater treatment plants.

Other major users are farms concentrated in Missouri’s Bootheel region in the southeast corner of the state.

According to a review of the DNR data, there are at least eight Bootheel area farms in the top 50 water users on the list, including cotton producers, rice growers and corn and soybean operations.

Those records are a source of consternation for the state’s powerful agricultural lobby.

Supporters cast the availability of public information about water use as a potentially dangerous problem. Out-of-state investors, for example, could target Missouri water for export elsewhere by tapping into the state’s database.

Lawmakers and some environmental groups raised red flags about the proposal.

“We should just go after people who are not following the law,â€� said Rep. Michael Burton, a south ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Democrat. “This is a solution is search of a problem.â€�

“I really just have a huge problem with this bill,� Burton added. “Water is a natural resource.�

The water database includes a lengthy list of industrial users, including the Lake City Army Ammunition facility in Independence, Six Flags ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ amusement park, cement plants in Festus and Ste. Genevieve and explosives company Dyno Nobel in Louisiana.

The state’s major meatpackers also make the list, with Tyson and Smithfield operations appearing in multiple spots, allowing the public to see how much water is being used in the production of pork, beef and poultry.

The legislation is . A similar measure is pending in the Senate.