Monthly Archives: January 2019


Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission dismisses hog farm permit denial appeal Baxter Bulletin

Baxter Bulletin Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission dismisses hog farm permit denial appeal SCOTT LILES, Baxter BulletinPublished 8:00 p.m. CT Jan. 29, 2019 Trying to thread a legal and judicial needle, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on Friday dismissed a Newton County hog farm’s appeal of its […]


MIKE MASTERSON: Watchdogs’ bias

MIKE MASTERSON: Watchdogs’ biasImpaired Buffaloby Mike Masterson | August 7, 2018 at 2:15 a.m. 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 […]


Court-transfer snag holds up hog farm’s suit against Arkansas agency NWA Online

NWAonline Court-transfer snag holds up hog farm’s suit against Arkansas agencyby Emily Walkenhorst |  The Pulaski County Circuit Court still has not received the files for a hog farm’s lawsuit against state environmental regulators nearly 50 days after a Newton County circuit judge ordered the transfer. Proceedings in the lawsuit, which alleges […]


GREG HARTON: Shhhh! Public doesn’t have to know, right?

GREG HARTON: Shhhh! Public doesn’t have to know, right? by Greg Harton | January 13, 2019 at 1:00 a.m. Here’s an idea: In government offices at every level, administrators should make it an assigned duty of a high-ranked employee to interject a single question into every discussion of projects or major policy […]


MASTERSON ONLINE: The incomplete index

MASTERSON ONLINE: The incomplete index by Mike Masterson | Today at 1:50 a.m. Thanks to some fine enterprise reporting by Emily Walkenhorst of this newspaper, we’ve learned the index created by academics at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to measure levels of potentially contaminating phosphorus leaking from the surfaces of agricultural […]


Arkansas Phosphorus Index Faulty

Critics: Arkansas Phosphorus Index faulty; it gauges fertilizer on fields but omits terrain factor, they say by Emily Walkenhorst | January 6, 2019 at 4:30 a.m. The calculation used to determine how much fertilizer farmers can apply to their crops in Arkansas doesn’t take into account the potential of the fertilizer leaching […]


Environmental groups can intervene in C&H Hog Farms’ appeal – Democrat-Gazette

Arkansasonline Environmental groups can intervene in C&H Hog Farms’ appeal of its permit denial, a judge ruled Friday. Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton issued the order. The intervenors are the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Arkansas Canoe Club, the Ozark Society, Gordon Watkins, Marti […]


Judge cancels order to summon officials – Democrat Gazette

Arkansasonline Judge cancels order to summon officials Arkansas environmental regulators won’t have to appear in court Wednesday as scheduled to argue why they shouldn’t be held in contempt of a Newton County Circuit Court order. Circuit Judge John Putman quashed his order for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to […]


Critics: Arkansas Phosphorus Index faulty – Democrat Gazette

Arkansasonline Critics: Arkansas Phosphorus Index faulty; it gauges fertilizer on fields but omits terrain factor, they say by Emily Walkenhorst | January 6, 2019 The calculation used to determine how much fertilizer farmers can apply to their crops in Arkansas doesn’t take into account the potential of the fertilizer leaching […]