No more CAFOs
Hogging the spotlight
Mike Masterson


The Arkansas Legislature is in the process of deciding whether to support a petition before the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission that would permanently prevent future medium and large swine factories from setting up in our precious Buffalo National River watershed.
Sounds to me like a no-brainer. If you believe even the single hog factory our state already allowed into this national treasure is one too many, I’d suggest contacting your state legislator and sharing your opinions.
The only folks I see who’d resist this effort to benefit our state and future generations by protecting our national river are special-interest groups such as the Farm Bureau and the Pork Producers. Their argument is to let science see how much contamination might result from C&H Hog Farms before taking any protective steps to prevent other large swine-waste factories into the region.
Huh? This apolitical and bipartisan petition is not about C&H.
Technically speaking, the revisions affected are numbers 5 and 6. If the commission does the right thing for our state, its changes unfortunately wouldn’t affect this C&H factory supplied and supported by Cargill Inc. It would only prevent other, larger swine factories from setting up in the watershed. The commission thankfully did implement a temporary moratorium against future factories in the watershed that’s set to expire before the end of the year.
Afterwards, the commissioners will hopefully be both wise and strong enough to make these protections permanent regardless of what legislators say or do.
The Legislature already has held one committee meeting to decide whether to give its blessing to the regulation changes, or side with the special interests in not supporting the idea. Meetings of four different House and Senate committees are planned for October and November to decide that question, although their decisions are nonbinding on the commission’s decision.
Meanwhile, with the temporary moratorium still in place, Arkansans’ support for making the prohibition against large swine factories permanent has been nothing short of overwhelming. I’m told the public comments on this rule have been the most ever received on a commission rule-making proposal, with over 90 percent in favor of the regulatory change.
Even Cargill publicly vows not to install another of its swine factories in the watershed, which validates what I’ve known about this wrongheaded location from the beginning. This misadventure is operating in the worst possible place. Period.
There also have been numerous comments from respected scientists with studies and data that demonstrate the proposal by the Ozark Society and Arkansas Public Policy Panel to amend the regulations is based on sound science.
As has been widely reported, the easily fractured karst limestone topography of the Buffalo River watershed allows basically uninterrupted flow from the surface to groundwater into streams and rivers. Water-quality testing by the University of Arkansas remains under way along and around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo just six miles downstream. Dye-testing by hydrologist/karst specialist Dr. John Van Brahana and his group of dedicated fellow volunteers already confirmed the nature and extent of this rapid and far-reaching subsurface runoff around the factory. Common sense tells me that any untreated liquid manure being regularly spread across fields in the watershed that doesn’t run off directly into tributaries of the Buffalo very likely seeps naturally into the subsurface and
migrates through preferential
pathways to the tributaries of the Buffalo. In fact, that process has now become established scientific fact.
Earlier studies conducted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) who quietly permitted the factory in this location unbeknownst to the National Park Service, that agency’s own local office and somehow even its nearly former director Teresa Marks, dealt with much smaller family hog farms. In other words, those studies are completely irrelevant.
Under the amended regulations, limited-size “farms” won’t be affected. Smaller swine concentrated animal feeding operations still will be allowed.
For now, though, C&H’s 6,500 swine and the enormous volumes of potent waste they emit unfortunately will continue to exist. The regulation change thankfully would simply prevent further C&H factories from being established near the Buffalo. Pretty simple and straightforward, eh?
So, valued readers, I know many of you are as concerned as I’ve been about the potential threat to our national river from hog waste. If you still feel that way, I encourage you to let your local state representatives know that. Rest assured these elected public servants are hearing plenty from special interests who’d rather not prevent additional large industrial swine producers into this hallowed ground.
 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.