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No experiments here - Democrat Gazette LTE

13 May 2017 6:41 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

Arkansas Democrat Gazette Letter to Editor


No experiments here


Mike Masterson's recent column, "Science, not emotion," got me to thinking about concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and the use of built-in wastewater treatment plants to convert raw liquid swine manure into treated waste. I imagine that proponents of this sort of technology for C&H Hog Farms see this as a solution to lessen the facility's adverse impacts to waters of the state and to the Buffalo River. Good enough.
However, industrial wastewater facilities are subject to our state's wastewater treatment facility regulations. I wonder if these proponents who push for a waste treatment plant for a CAFO in the Buffalo River Watershed will lobby for strict regulatory, compliance, and enforcement measures; after all, we're talking about waste treatment on a magnitude of scale.
What are the cost projections for this type of facility? Who will bear the costs? C&H? JBS? Farm Bureau? Taxpayers? Has this type of technology been scientifically proven to be superior and environmentally safe for large-scale industrialized CAFOs in karst environments?
As I pondered more on this subject, I realized that it doesn't make economic sense to site a plant for just one CAFO. Will this be a showcase facility? Might more CAFOs be allowed in the Buffalo River watershed? Is this what we want for our river?
The Buffalo River Watershed is not the place to experiment or conduct research on behalf of industrialized agriculture.
Now that's something to think about ...


DANE SCHUMACHER
Huntsville

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