Arkansasonline Studies ignoredSwine factoryBy Mike Masterson Widely respected hydrogeologist Thomas Aley, president of the Ozark Underground Laboratory in Protem, Mo., completed in May his investigation into the suitability of issuing a new Regulation 5 animal liquid waste permit to C&H Hog Farms.Aley’s extremely detailed study concluded absolutely not, while emphasizing […]
Arkansasonline A defender of natural Arkansas By RICHARD MASON Special to the Democrat-Gazette Posted: August 26, 2018 at 2 a.m. My favorite Broadway play is Les Miserables, in which Jean Valjean sings “Who am I?… I’m Jean Valjean … 24601!” It’s his confession that he is the escaped prisoner. After writing […]
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/aug/26/save-the-buffalo-20180826/ OPINION REX NELSON: Save the Buffalo by Rex Nelson | Today at 1:56 a.m. Another school year has begun in Arkansas and surrounding states. Tourism in the Ozarks has slowed. I’m alone as I stand on the banks of the Buffalo River at Tyler Bend on a Wednesday afternoon. It’s unseasonably […]
Arkansasonline Panel orders reissue of hog-farm denial Permit decision must be draft, it says by Emily Walkenhorst | An application for a hog farm permit will return to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to be reconsidered during a new public-comment period, the agency’s appellate body decided Friday in a unanimous vote. The […]
Democrat Gazette Permit application for hog farm in Buffalo River’s watershed to be reconsidered by Emily Walkenhorst A contentious hog farm permit application will return to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to be reconsidered during a new public comment period, the agency’s appellate body decided in an unanimous vote Friday. […]
NWAonline C&H’s owners propose new hog operation near Arkansas River by Emily Walkenhorst The owners of the Buffalo River watershed’s only large-scale hog farm are proposing to build a 10,374-hog operation near the Arkansas River and Cedar Creek in Franklin County, according to an application submitted to environmental regulators. The farm […]
TONY HILLIARD: Buffalo River endangered by hog farm By Tony Hilliard Special to the Democrat-Gazette Posted: August 23, 2018 at 4:30 a.m. The Buffalo River has been a part of my life since 1965, from Boxley to Buffalo City. For the past four years I’ve noticed the increased algae in […]
Arkansasonline Groups say Arkansas’ impaired-waters plan falls short by Emily Walkenhorst State regulators’ proposals do not go far enough in addressing impaired waters in the state, representatives of environmental groups told the agency during a public hearing Friday. Representatives of groups focusing on the Buffalo River and its related rivers, and […]
Arkansasonline MIKE MASTERSON: Nutrients spilling over By Mike Masterson Posted: August 18, 2018 at 2:06 a.m. Since our state’s Department of Environmental Quality (cough) has decided to shirk its fundamental responsibility by using proxy groups without regulatory authority to simply monitor the ongoing contamination in portions of our Buffalo National River […]
KUAF Public Radio Buffalo National River Issues Hazardous Algae Alert, New Independent Algae Survey Team Forms By JACQUELINE FROELICH The new alert, which regards a significant algae bloom in the Buffalo National River, warns visitors to avoid primary contact with algal infested waters. In the meantime, a survey team led by independent […]
Democrat Gazette No recuse for Buffalo The state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission did not demand Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s February 2018 appointee, Mike Freeze, recuse from a vote regarding C&H’s 6,500-head hog farm. Curiously, Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton didn’t either. Referring to a recent article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: The […]
Arkansasonline MIKE MASTERSON: Watchdogs’ bias Impaired Buffalo By Mike Masterson It’s troubled me for years that our Department of Environmental Quality (cough) relies on the Big Creek Research and Extension Team, with an obvious agricultural bent toward protecting C&H Hog Farms, to authenticate any contamination leaking from that facility into adjacent […]
KARK News ADEQ Releases List of Impaired Bodies of Water Jessi Turnure NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) released a list of lakes and streams Thursday that fall below its standards. The proposed list is part of a report the Federal Clean Water Act requires Arkansas to submit […]
Arkansasonline RICHARD MASON: Back to the 1970s By RICHARD MASON Special to the Democrat-Gazette This article was published August 5, 2018 at 2:38 a.m. Members of the present administration in Washington and Little Rock are trying their best to bring back the 1970s–environmentally. In 1969, a polluted river in Cleveland […]
KUAF/ Ozark at Large Hundreds of Arkansas Waterways Draft Listed as Ecologically Impaired By JACQUELINE FROELICH Listen to the broadcast here. A biannual review categorizes more than a thousand Arkansas waterways according to levels of impairment, with the worst cases requiring federal and state intervention. This year, several sections of the Buffalo River […]
Arkansas Times Richard Mays fights pigs, pollution and plans for bigger highways The blight-buster. By Leslie Newell Peacock @eyecandypeacock click to enlarge WORK ON I-630 WIDENING: Mays failed to get an injunction against the project that started last week. He took issue with the highway department’s exclusion from doing an environmental assessment. […]
Letter to Editor Arkansas Democrat Gazette Agency must do job The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality put out a press release last month announcing that long stretches of the Buffalo River and Big Creek, one of the largest tributaries of the Buffalo, are “impaired.” For those not fluent in bureaucratic […]
The Fern This little piggy went to market … and everything changed A former contract hog farmer reflects on what industrial production has done to his rural Arkansas community By Johnny Carrol Sain, August 1, 2018 Photography by Liz Chrisman Arkansas Highway 155 branches of Arkansas 7 just south of Dardanelle. The […]
Arkansasonline Buffalo Impaired Story by Mike Masterson Tuesday, July 31, 2018 We’ve been warned for years by hydrogeologists, geoscientists and others who understand disease-causing bacteria and contamination of waterways. Now over 14 miles of our unique Buffalo National River is categorized in a draft list as being impaired. That means one […]
Arkansasonline Panel OKs decision on hog farm permit By Emily Walkenhorst Posted: July 29, 2018 at 3:29 a.m. The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved Friday its administrative law judge’s recommendations to deny motions made by C&H Hog Farms arguing that its original permit was indefinitely active. Administrative Law Judge […]