A pond leaked?

By Mike Masterson, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

March 22, 2015

I was shocked, downright shocked I say, to read a news account where Cargill Inc., the primary supporter and supplier of the controversial hog factory in the Buffalo National River watershed at Mount Judea, had water from its treatment-plant pond at Beardstown, Ill., end up in a city pond where fish were found dead.

The leak in the company's earthen dam was about 40 feet wide and apparently occurred over the weekend of March 7-8. Its pond leaked millions of gallons into surrounding croplands and into irrigation ditches that flowed into the stocked city pond.

Cargill repaired its leak then said it would restock the pond though officials said there hadn't yet been any direct correlation between the corporation's leaky pond and the dead fish. The Beardstown mayor took it a step further and suggested perhaps the fish had died from "winter kill."

What the heck, I wouldn't rule out Bigfoot or the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I feel certain Cargill's engineers never in their wildest plannings imagined their earthen dam would ever spring such a massive leak.