Menu
Log in


Buffalo River Watershed Alliance

Log in

Gentlemen's Agreement

01 Nov 2016 7:15 AM | Anonymous member

MIKE MASTERSON: Gentlemen’s agreement

Farms or habitat


By Mike Masterson

Posted: November 1, 2016 at 5:45 a.m.

NWAOnline


Months before a University of Arkansas agriculture professor was appointed head of the Big Creek Research and Extension Team formed to monitor waste from a hog factory in the Buffalo National River watershed, Dr. Andrew Sharpley's remarks to a 2013 conference revealed preferential regulatory practices and his priorities as an advocate for agriculture.

It's been three years since Teresa Marks, the previous Department of Environmental Quality (cough) director, said she didn't even realize her agency had issued a permit to C&H Hog Farms in Newton County until it had. Neither did former Gov. Mike Beebe, the National Park Service, or even Environmental Quality's own local inspectors know.

Beebe said the factory was his biggest regret in office. In an attempt to rectify such a wrongheaded decision, Beebe agreed on Sept 5, 2013, to form and fund the Big Creek team.

Centered at the University of Arkansas' Agriculture Division, the team was to ensure the toxic raw waste stored on-site and sprayed on fields around Big Creek (a major tributary of the Buffalo) wasn't polluting the karst-riddled watershed.

During an Extension Service conference in North Dakota in April 2013, Sharpley discussed the nature of so-called Discovery Farms. He'd said Arkansas farmers who participate in that experimental program strive to maintain a balance between profits and environmental preservation.

To me, his words reveal a relevant mindset when it comes to preserving the water quality of our country's first national river while describing a purported "gentlemen's agreement" involving the state's leniency in regulating and monitoring Discovery Farms.

In 38 minutes of speaking, he describes how he regularly assuages concerns of farmers invited to participate in the program and that Marks even served on a Discovery Farms committee. His talk strikes me as nothing short of disdain for the role of a pesky Environmental Protection Agency and the troubling protective approach regarding the state Department of Environmental Quality's regulatory practices. Decide for yourself.

"We wanted to have some protection for farmers," Sharpley told the audience. "We wanted EPA and ADEQ to give those farmers some protection from being cited if there was a problem, because we know we might find problems on these farms. But they wouldn't, they wouldn't write anything in paper but basically we have a gentlemen's agreement that if you do find a problem, because they're working under this program we'll give them some leniency to show that they're doing their best with the resources they've got to address those issues.

"That's always a question when we ask farmers if you would like to be involved in this program. The first question they always ask is are EPA going to come knocking on my door? We can't say no. Unfortunately, EPA are pretty aggressive in our part of the country and I suspect they're coming to a neighborhood near you too. If they're not already there, they're coming. And they would probably be coming further if they hadn't been sequestered and lost some dollars."

Suppose a similar policy applies today to C&H? Fair question.

While there's been discussion about including C&H among the state's eight Discovery Farms, Arkansas has yet to do so. Understandably, there's plenty of public opposition to the idea in the factory's present location. Yet it appears the state might be moving in that direction, according to Buffalo River Watershed Alliance leader Gordon Watkins. Two Discovery Farm technicians already serve on Sharpley's team. Watkins said current Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh told him her agency is indeed considering C&H as a Discovery Farm.

Watkins' group and others strongly oppose that move because the Buffalo watershed is widely seen as "no place to be conducting risky experimental practices, especially given the alarming statement of Dr. Sharpley that there is a 'gentleman's agreement' with regulators to look the other way when permit violations occur."

He adds, "This sort of collusion to allow permit violations is not only totally unacceptable in the Buffalo River watershed, it raises serious questions about the Discovery Farm program in general."

Since Discovery Farms supposedly are considered "model farms" where new practices are developed to be replicated elsewhere, there also are concerns that placing C&H in this category would perpetuate its presence in the watershed. Moreover, it could become a model for other swine factories, thereby opening the door for the proliferation of such places in the watershed or other environmentally sensitive locations, Watkins said.

As with Watkins, I'm stunned by Sharpley's comments on protecting Discovery Farms from the reality of their problems through a "gentlemen's agreement" rather than regulating effective environmental quality above all else.

That certainly would include above special interests bent on protecting potential polluters.

------------v------------

Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.

Editorial on 11/01/2016


Buffalo River Watershed Alliance is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization

Copyright @ 2019


Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software