UA hog study

Speaking of bacon, it's time to decide if our state will cough up a few hundred thousand more tax dollars so the University of Arkansas geosciences folks can continue monitoring that hog factory our state allowed into the precious Buffalo National River watershed back in 2012.
Former Gov. Mike Beebe, under whose administration this factory with up to 6,500 wrongheadedly gained entry to the most environmentally sensitive region of our state, initially allocated $340,000 for the university to monitor possible hog-waste contamination in the watershed.
That expenditure thus far has resulted in "inconclusive" results based on examining a fraction of the spray fields.
Now the decision on whether a lot more money is needed to continue studying the millions of gallons of waste from the swine factory: If the location isn't critical, why spend so much money and energy to monitor the castoffs being regularly sprayed on watershed fields?
Truth is, it matters a lot. The state created a terrible situation that now we are paying to police. What's wrong with this picture? And why is this Cargill-supplied factory being so coddled? Yes, the factory jumped through the state's hoops for a permit, but those upfront requirements clearly weren't close to stringent enough, as evidenced by the game of "pay money, watch and see" we're playing now.
Denying a hog-factory permit in this location to begin with would have saved so much time, energy and taxpayer dollars.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 01/20/2015