Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
Arkansasonline
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing a request by opponents of C&H Hog Farms in Newton County to reconsider who is allowed to observe a drilling project at the facility to determine whether hog manure ponds are leaking.
Richard Mays, a Heber Springs attorney representing the Buffalo River Coalition, sent a letter Thursday to Bob Blanz, air division manager at the Department of Environmental Quality, asking that the department either allow a coalition-requested geologist to observe the drilling, or disallow the two geologists with the Big Creek Research and Extension Team from observing.
“Members of [Big Creek Research] were not listed in the original list of participants, and we are extremely disturbed by this addition,” Mays wrote. “As you well know, it was the original work of [Big Creek Research], and its failure to follow up on evidence of a release … that has led to their investigation.”
The Big Creek Research and Extension Team has maintained that drilling was not needed because the data that suggested a possible leak was accompanied by contrasting clean data in nearby areas that team members said would have been affected by a leak.
The department elected to proceed with drilling in June after the Buffalo River Coalition asked the department to do so. C&H owners gave the department permission to conduct the research on the facility’s property, with co-owner Jason Henson saying that researchers wouldn’t find the pollution that hog farm opponents were looking for.
Earlier this year, a contractor doing electrical resistivity imaging for the Big Creek Research and Extension Team found what he believed to be higher than expected moisture levels below one of the ponds, which could indicate a leak. He said the problem could be addressed by drilling to discover what was causing the higher moisture levels or by installing plastic liners under the hog manure.
C&H has received a permit to install plastic liners but has not installed them yet.
The dispute over who can observe the research is the latest tussle between opponents of the hog farm and the Big Creek Research and Extension Team over perceived bias in the myriad studies taking place at C&H Hog Farms.
The Big Creek team maintains that it is impartial, while Buffalo River Coalition members insist that the team is biased in favor of C&H because of its affiliation with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Henson has argued that the research being conducted by hog farm opponents near the facility is biased.
The environmental department has permitted the drilling contractor, Harbor Environmental, to have geologist Tai Hubbard of Hydrogeology Inc. observe the proceedings as a third party, along with two researchers from the Big Creek Research and Extension Team. But the department denied the coalition’s earlier request to have a coalition hydrogeologist —University of Tulsa geology professor Bert Fisher — present for the drilling. The department has not responded to Thursday’s request.
“Regarding the inquiry from the Buffalo River Coalition, it is currently under review and we have not yet responded,” department spokesman Kelly Robinson said.
Why the department initially denied the coalition’s request was unclear Friday.
The Big Creek team declined to comment Friday through a spokesman, saying it was the Department of Environmental Quality’s decision.
The Department of Environmental Quality informed the coalition on Friday that drilling would begin no sooner than Aug. 15, as opposed to the previously announced Aug. 8, because of a scheduling conflict with Harbor Environmental’s subcontractor, Mays said.
C&H is permitted to hold up to 2,503 sows and 4,000 piglets. It has been opposed for the entirety of its three-year existence by environmental and recreation groups concerned about its potential to pollute the Buffalo National River. The farm is near Big Creek, about 6 miles from where the creek enters the Buffalo River.
The Department of Environmental Quality signed a contract with Little Rockbased Harbor Environmental for $75,000 to do the drilling and lab work, which was higher than the $20,000 to $30,000 estimate the department made before putting the work out for bids.
In June, the department said it had about $50,000 set aside in environmental settlement funds received for water studies for the project. Some additional funds would be provided by the department’s general operating budget, Robinson said.
Harbor Environmental will study the integrity of the manure pond liners by extracting samples of the ground through drilling.
The Buffalo River, the first national river, had 1.46 million visitors last year, the third-highest total since it became a national river and the highest since a record visitors count of 1.55 million was set in 2009. That year, visitors spent an estimated $62.2 million at local businesses, directly supporting 750 jobs and secondarily supporting 219 jobs.
Print Headline: Hog farm’s foes want their expert at drilling
Chicago Tribune
Spills of pig waste kill hundreds of thousands of fish in Illinois
Whipped, kicked, beaten: Illinois workers describe abuse of hogs
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Harbor Environmental of Little Rock will get the state contract to drill beneath at least one of the massive waste lagoons at C&H Hog Farms.
I'm withholding any festive hooting until this latest move, supposedly to protect our Buffalo National River flowing six miles downstream from the factory, proves valid, appropriate and transparent. After all, it's the same national river and state treasure that last year, alone, attracted well over a million visitors who left behind over $62 million in tourism dollars in our relatively impoverished state.
Sorry, but I'm gun shy to offer premature kudos to the state for finally putting Arkansans and its national river ahead of special interests.
While I halfheartedly commend the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) for hopefully deciding to finally discover what the wet material is that Oklahoma State University geologist Todd Halihan says his electrical resistivity studies discovered deep beneath one lagoon, I also recall Halihan supposedly offering to arrange for this necessary drilling for free at that time. Oh well, it's only tax dollars.
If Harbor Environmental's efforts show waste is leaking through a fracture in this specific location, the God-awful stuff likely has continued spreading since the tests in March 2015 into the cracked limestone subsurface near Big Creek (a major Buffalo tributary) at least as deep as 120 feet down.
I'll not spend more words explaining how neither the Department of Environmental Quality nor the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission supposedly were informed of Halihan's findings until this April when, through a Freedom of Information request, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and other coalition members intent on protecting the purity of the river revealed them during a commission meeting in Little Rock.
Such a revelation didn't place the Big Creek Research and Extension Team in the best of lights. This is the group from the University of Arkansas Agriculture Division that retained Halihan in the first place to discover if pollution is soaking from C&H into the watershed.
Naturally, commissioners and others wondered at the meeting why they hadn't been told of Halihan's suspected leak and fracture many months earlier, or whenever it was that the Big Creek team first learned of it. Team members said they didn't express concern about Halihan's findings because their other research (none directly beneath the lagoons) hadn't revealed any patterns of pollution. Hmmm. I see.
A news account the other day by Emily Walkenhorst reported that C&H, whose existence in the watershed has been fostered and encouraged by the state's sustained kindnesses, also has been granted a permit by the agency to install plastic lagoon liners to replace the clay liners the state initially approved. My mind boggles at the mere thought of trying to safely and thoroughly make such a long-after-the fact transition.
And, of course, there were more revelations to report in this national park swine saga that should never have happened.
Considering that the Department of Environmental Quality, since 2102, was clearly intent on quickly and quietly granting the permit for this factory, a favorite paragraph of Walkenhorst's story for me went like this:
"[Department Deputy Director Julie] Chapman also said Friday that the department would look further into what officials should regularly report to commissioners after Pollution Control and Ecology Commissioner Wesley Stites wondered why commissioners hadn't been given more immediate notice of a permit modification granted earlier this year to a relative of the C&H Hog Farms owners to apply manure from C&H on EC Farms property. The department issued the permit June 29 and listed it at the end of its agenda packet for Friday's commission meeting. Stites said he felt 'blindsided.'"
Welcome, Commissioner Stites, to the feelings of a vast number of taxpaying, voting Arkansans (including former Gov. Mike Beebe) who believe this whole misguided mess has been one blindside.
"'I think the last thing the department can afford to do ... is give the appearance that we're attempting to ... avoid notice,' Stites said, adding that part of what made C&H's original operational permit approval contentious was the feeling among members of the public that they were not properly notified of the permit application," the story read.
Chapman responded that she believed her department can do a better job of trying to anticipate what commissioners would be interested in. "We are open," she said. "We are trying to be transparent."
Open? Transparent? Seriously? The C&H controversy has roiled for three years with everything but openness and transparency. The commissioner was on target when he pointed out the last thing the department can afford to do is continue its opaque methods favoring this swine factory that should never have allowed into our sacred and precious watershed.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Posted: Sunday, July 24, 2016 7:00 am |
By David HOLSTED davidh@harrisondaily.com |0 comments
PONCA — For Dr. Van Brahana, nothing beats the smell of a good rock.
“I sniff rocks,” he said, then in response to the giggles and chuckles around him, he added, “Not that way!”
Brahana is a hydrogeologist and professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas. As a dedicated rock sniffer, there was no better place to indulge in his guilty pleasure than on a gravel bar along the Buffalo River.
Brahana shared his passion for rocks, particularly the rocks of the Buffalo National River country, in a two-plus hour workshop (it was scheduled for two hours, but get Brahana started on geology and you might as well throw the clocks out the window) held at the Ponca Elk Education Center. Brahana then led a caravan of pebble pilgrims to the Steel Creek area of the Buffalo for some hands-on experience.
The event was sponsored by the Ponca Elk Education Center, a Patagonia environmental grant and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.
“I love this area,” Brahana said of the Buffalo River country. “I think it’s spectacular. We need to treat it with the utmost care.”
The workshop dealt with the karst nature of the Buffalo River country. Millions of years ago, according to Brahana, northwest Arkansas lay at the bottom of a shallow ocean. Fossils called crinoids, or sea lilies, have been found in the area that support that claim, said Brahana. The crinoids are also called Indian beads, because the early inhabitants strung them together. Brahana had several examples of the ancient fossils, which he showed to his audience.
Layers of sedimentary rocks, including limestone, chert, sandstone and shale were piled up.
Brahana went on to say that the age of the rocks in the Buffalo National River range from 500 million to 290 million years.
“They were modified into the glorious landscape we have today,” he said.
Though the Buffalo River lies 100 miles north of the Ouachita Mountains, the formation of that range played a vital role in the present character of the river. Brahana explained that almost 300 million years ago, the upward thrust of the Ouachita’s, fueled by thermal heat, also resulted in lifting the Buffalo River 500 to 600 feet above its original level. The movement also resulted in the fracture and tilting of rock layers in the Buffalo River country.
Millions of years of natural weathering, along with chemical weathering (water soaking into rocks and combining with carbon dioxide to become acidic) have resulted in karstification, or the dissolution of limestone. It’s this karst quality, creating caves, sink holes and “Swiss cheese” openings that is characteristic of the Ozarks, according to Brahana.
“I like to say it’s holey ground,” Brahana said. “The Buffalo River is holey.”
It was this karst aspect that made the Ozarks particularly susceptible to pollution.
“Even small sinkholes allow surface contamination to soak into the rocks,” Brahana said.
Later, while on the banks of the river, Brahana continued to be the voice crying out in the Buffalo River Wilderness.
“Let’s save it for the future, guys,” he said.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality this week selected a contractor for a drilling project on a hog farm in Newton County, Chief Deputy Director Julie Chapman said Friday.
Harbor Environmental of Little Rock will conduct the study, which will drill to extract soil samples at C&H Hog Farms.
C&H is permitted to hold up to 2,503 sows and 4,000 piglets, but it has been criticized for the entirety of its three-year existence by environmental and recreation groups concerned about its potential to pollute the Buffalo National River. The facility sits on Big Creek, about 6 miles from where the creek enters the Buffalo.
Compensation for Harbor Environmental has not been determined, but department officials said last month that they had set aside $50,000 for the study and expected to spend between $20,000 and $30,000.
The department selected the company after briefing hog-farm opponents at the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance about the process that would be used to select the company and the preliminary plans for the drilling, Chapman said.
Earlier this year, a contractor doing electroresistivity imaging for the Big Creek Research and Extension Team found what he believed to be higher-than-expected moisture levels below one of the ponds, which could indicate a leak. He said the problem could be addressed by drilling to discover what was causing the higher moisture levels or by installing plastic liners under the hog manure.
Members of the Big Creek Research and Extension Team, which operates out of the University of Arkansas System's Division of Agriculture and will monitor C&H's effect on the environment for five years for the state, have said the findings did not alarm them because no other research conducted on the site has shown any patterns of pollution.
Chapman also said Friday that the department would look further into what officials should regularly report to commissioners after a Pollution Control and Ecology commissioner, Wesley Stites, wondered why commissioners hadn't been given more immediate notice of a permit modification granted earlier this year to a relative of the C&H Hog Farms owners to apply manure from C&H on EC Farms property. The department issued the permit June 29 and listed it at the end of its agenda packet for Friday's commission meeting.
Stites said he felt "blindsided."
"I think the last thing the department can afford to do ... is give the appearance that we're attempting to ... avoid notice," Stites said, adding that part of what made C&H's original operational permit approval contentious was the feeling among members of the public that they were not properly notified of the permit application.
Chapman said the department can do a better job of trying to anticipate what commissioners would be interested in.
"We are open," she said. "We are trying to be transparent."
Metro on 07/23/2016
Print Headline: LR firm chosen to drill under pig farm's ponds
By NWA Democrat-Gazette
Posted: July 6, 2016 at 1 a.m.
The canoeists angled for the bank as soon as they'd emerged from the fast-moving waters. Unlike some of the earlier adventures through the river's quicker-paced but shallow flows, this section held no threat form the unpleasantness of small, barely submerged rocks making that awful noise as it scraped along the vessel's hull.
No, this boat-bobbling experience was caused by deeper and bigger boulders churning the quickening waters. Reaching the bank, the paddlers glanced back, quickly convinced the rest of their crew would also recognize the potential for refreshing excitement in this stretch of the Buffalo River. It was time for another break in a three-day journey downstream to the take-out at the old zinc-mining town of Rush.
What’s the point?
Further study of the threat of contamination from a hog farm near a tributary of the Buffalo River is vital to river’s long-term care.
Before long, young and old(er) alike stretched their legs forward, buoyed by their life jackets in the cool, clear water. Positioned as if they reclined in a liquid La-Z-Boy, each adventurer cascaded downstream by the power of water, slow enough to maintain some control but fast enough to inspire delighted smiles in both the youngsters and the old goats.
A roller coaster would be faster, but no more exhilarating than this moment in a true Arkansas natural, and national, treasure.
Experiences like these are what inspire Arkansans' love affair with this beauty of a river as it flows more than 150 miles through the Ozarks toward the White River. They're also what under-gird concern over its future, intensified by the establishment more than three years ago of a large hog farm near a tributary that feeds into the Buffalo.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued a permit to C&H Hog Farms through a process that has, ever since, been criticized for its lack of transparency amid critics' questions about the damage hog waste would have on the river. No evidence, according to state-hired scientists, shows the large-scale hog operation is causing any pollution, but for many Arkansans the question is "why risk it?"
If the argument is really one of Save the Buffalo vs. save the hogs, we know which side most Arkansans are likely to take. But the argument isn't so clear cut as advocates for the river might like to suggest. Backers of C&H have questioned whether scientific arguments by opponents are skewed by emotion, while anti-hog farm activists raise questions of whether state-hired scientists are biased.
Even as they clash, those groups appeared to welcome the recent announcement by the Department of Environmental Quality that the agency will commission a study of clay liners the farm's hog manure storage ponds. Opponents of the farm have expressed concern the ponds are leaking.
C&H ownership, apparently confident in its operations, has given the state agency permission to enter into a contract with an independent research team. Cost of the study is expected to be $20,000 to $30,000. Becky Keogh, director of the agency, promised an "open and transparent manner" of research to supplement existing research.
All Arkansans who appreciate our Natural State should be watching to see what future findings show. As much as we respect the private property rights of every Arkansan, the Buffalo is the nation's first national river and it draws nearly million visitors a year. That accounts for millions of dollars in tourist spending that supports 750 jobs.
Arkansas cannot afford to risk environmental damage to the Buffalo National River. But the hog farm's operation cannot be shuttered based on fear. It's got to be based on facts. We welcome new research to help establish facts about how well the hog farm operators are containing waste from the hog-raising operation.
And whatever protections are necessary to protect the Buffalo River should be given top priority by Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration. Surely no governor wants to go down in history as the one who lost the Buffalo.
Commentary on 07/06/2016
By Mike Masterson
In March 2015, the University of Arkansas' Division of Agriculture's Big Creek Research and Extension Team retained Oklahoma State University geology professor and hydrologist Todd Halihan and associate Jon Fields to perform electrical resistivity imaging studies on waste spray fields used by owners of C&H Hog Farms at Mount Judea.
The Big Creek team was formed under former Gov. Mike Beebe to monitor waste discharges from the swine factory located in the watershed of our country's first national river, the majestic Buffalo. The team's dual role was also to help this factory farm supported by Cargill Inc. of Minnesota become environmentally sustainable in the sensitive ecological area underlain by fractured limestone known as karst.
I'm covering some previously trod ground here. Yet it's necessary to lay groundwork for the context of what follows.
During the field studies, Halihan secured permission to perform scans beneath the two waste lagoons at the factory site. That's when he discovered a large plume of what appears to be waste leaking from one pond deep underground and a possible fracture through which he suspected hog waste was flowing.
While it's unknown when Halihan delivered the results of his findings to the Big Creek team, it is known the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) and the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission say they were never told of Halihan's disturbing results until the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance disclosed them during a commission meeting in April.
We also know the Big Creek team, headed by professor Andrew Sharpley, a professor with the University of Arkansas' Division of Agriculture, has continually said its members saw no reason to drill in the plume area Halihan suspected of fracture and leakage because his team believes it to be clay rather than waste. As of late last month, however, the state says a truth-revealing test well finally will be done (presumably into the relevant location of the suspicious plume) to determine the truth of what lies beneath: clay or hog waste.
Whew! Now, to today's point.
While I don't know precisely when the Big Creek team knew of Halihan's discovery of this possible major fracture, logic tells me it wasn't long after he'd completed and submitted the scans they'd contracted him to perform in March 2015.
But the following email thread between members of the team and Sharp-ley leaves no doubt this tax-supported official monitor of protecting the Buffalo knew the results by mid-October 2015, eight months before the Department of Environmental Quality and the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission say the Watershed Alliance informed them.
The exchanges all were sent on the morning of Oct. 16, 2015, and obtained by the alliance through Freedom of Information Act requests made to the U.S. Geological Service.
Participants in the thread are UA Agriculture professor and extension engineer Karl VanDevender, Tim Kresse with the Geological Service, Phillip Hays with the UA Department of Geosciences, and Sharpley.
From: Kresse, to Sharpley and others--Subject: Re: Fields-Halihan presentation: "I saw the presentation. There were no difficulties at all and it was a good presentation. I did chat with Todd and Jon some about the pond results, and Phil joined in on the second half of that conversation. We can chat about that sometime. In short, it would be nice to put a well on the west side in the vicinity of where Todd believed he saw a major fracture and movement of waste. This could be critical to resolving the interpretation of the resistivity data. Todd would be willing to assist on getting the drilling done for free. I just don't know the amount of grief or worry this would cause, in lieu of all the activity at the farm, but again I believe it is a critical component. Todd is fairly confident of his interpretation. Thoughts?"
Response from VanDevender: "Would the new potable water well serve? I understand that is located west of ponds between barns."
Response from Kresse to Sharpley and others: "Not really. I would imagine (or hope) that the zone we are concerned with would be cased off from the potable water. Cuttings would have helped some ..."
Response from VanDevender to Sharpley and others: "... Where and how deep does the well need to be? All, do we need to schedule a phone/web conference to discuss?"
Sharpley's response to all: "Sure, we can have a conference call next week. What ... works for most of you? ... Relatedly, though, I know Jason [Henson, C&H owner] is close to the limit of accommodating new requests for several reasons. And I certainly empathize with him."
Kresse's response to Sharpley: "Thursday is fine for me. Phil and I did relate to Todd that Jason might be near the end of his tether on continued work near and around the pond. We can discuss all the reasons this would be of increased importance to the group (and Jason for that matter)."
That's where the thread ended only to come to light after the alliance issued its Freedom of Information request that made it public.
Editorial on 07/05/2016
With its rolling hills, rivers and caves, the Ozarks is full of natural beauty. But the landscape does not come without risks. Dr. Van Brahana, a hydrogeologist and professor emeritus with the University of Arkansas, will lead a workshop at the Buffalo National River on the region’s surroundings.
Brahana’s has held many seminars about the force, beauty and capability of karst areas and aquifers which comprise much of southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.
“The main concern and the emphasis here is karst, which is rock that is easily dissolved by water that has picked up some carbon dioxide, so it is a weak acid,” he said. “The acid essentially dissolves or eats away the rock. First it creates small holes, Swiss cheese type patterns, and then ultimately it can create some very big conduits or features such as caves.”
He said that in karst areas there are sinkholes, sinking creeks and streams. His concern is mainly directed toward human safety and nature preservation.
“The water can get down and underground and then you can’t see it,” he said. “It pops out and it pops out quickly and we don’t have much time to alert the rest of the community that there may be some danger or hazard associated with it.”
The workshop titled “What Lies Beneath” is sponsored by a Patagonia grant, the Ponca Elk Education Center and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. It will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on July 16 at the Elk Education Center in Ponca, Arkansas.
“We have a grant from Patagonia and they have an arm that funds environmental studies and natural studies,” he said. “They are looking for rules that are in place in states and other locations that are not necessarily being followed by some of the people that are supposed to enforce them.”
From the grant, Brahana has conducted presentations in Eureka Springs, Fayetteville and Little Rock.
But this next workshop will be unlike the past classroom sessions. In addition to visiting and learning at the Buffalo National River, participants will be led on a field trip to the swimming hole and bluffs at Steel Creek.
“When you get out in the field and go down to Steel Creek you can start to see many of these features much more clearly, because the river has cut into the rock,” he said. “It is just like the highway department. When they cut into rock to make a highway through an area, the road needs to be fairly level. We can see a lot of things that we couldn’t see before.”
Those participating are welcome to bring proper swim attire and a lunch if they plan to stay awhile.
“It’s our natural environment, it’s a beautiful part of the country and it needs some respect and understanding,” Brahana said.
For more information on the “What Lies Beneath” hydrogeology workshop click here.
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