By ANN PIERCEALL

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

NEW LONDON, Mo. -- A commitment order for contempt of court has been issued for Ken Jaeger, a former Ralls County developer in trouble with the state for persistent spillage of raw sewage into Missouri waters.

The civil arrest warrant was signed by Circuit Court Judge Robert Clayton and issued April 22 after Jaeger failed to appear at an April 1 hearing in Ralls County Circuit Court.

Jaeger not only failed to appear in court that day, he also never carried out Clayton's March court order to contain renewed sewage overflowing from a subdivision by pumping the lagoon down two feet and fixing the pump station.

The commitment order sent to the Ralls County Sheriff's Department calls for Jaeger to be jailed until he "purges himself of contempt" by complying with Clayton's March order.

"This has been an ongoing issue for the citizens up there in the subdivision and all along our office has been committed to make sure Mr. Jaeger complied with the law. He has failed to do so," said John Fougere, press secretary for the Missouri Attorney General's Office, which has prosecuted the case against Jaeger.

The dispute surrounding Jaeger began in fall 2004 when Jaeger built what the state said was an unpermitted sewage lagoon near the Lost Valley subdivision. The lagoon had been discharging untreated sewage into a tributary of the Salt River and also poured over the top of the lagoon's berm and into the nearby subdivision.

Jaeger has since moved to Texas. In late March, Jaeger filed for bankruptcy, and at first there was some question whether that could impede the issuance of an arrest warrant.

"This is a different matter because it deals with compliance with the law when it comes to environmental issues," Fougere said.

In December, Clayton ordered Jaeger to pay $25,000 to the Ralls County School Fund; complete the sewer treatment system by installing a second pump at an estimated cost of $80,000; provide a system to spray off the effluent from the sewage lagoon at a cost of $13,500; pay $2,400 to the homeowners of Lost Valley for road maintenance; and transfer all the spray-off land, the lagoon and other portions of land pertinent to the project to Blue Lagoon LLC at no cost, free and clear.

The land is estimated to be worth about $100,000.

All of that was to have been done by March 4. When additional overflow occurred due to stormwater run-off, Clayton gave Jaeger until April 1 to get that fixed.

-- apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879