Arkansas Democrat Gazette

OPINION | MIKE MASTERSON: Obscuring truth

Today at 2:55 a.m.

by Mike Masterson

The responsibility for permitting and acting as watchdog over large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOS) in Arkansas appears on the verge of significant changes in rules, making it more challenging for stakeholders to know when and where a CAFO is planned.

Brian Thompson, president of the environmental watchdog Ozark Society, reminded Arkansans of how the Arkansas Department of Agriculture assumed control over this critical responsibility.

"Those reading during the 2014 era will recall the enormous controversy over our state's former Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) quietly permitting a private interest to establish a large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) along a tributary of America's first national river, our popular Buffalo in north central Arkansas," he said.

"That issue was ultimately resolved by the state buying out the CAFO. Now the state's oversight for future CAFO proposals and proper operations statewide is transferred to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture (ADA), a friend rather than watchdog to CAFO owners."

With this change has come a new series of proposed regulation requirements about how those who propose CAFOs must let the public know of them well in advance so interested voices can then be heard.

Gone will be the Department of Environmental Quality's original rule that required publishing a notice of the CAFO proposal in the closest newspaper. Neither will there be the traditionally required letters to adjacent property owners, nor notification of the county judge, or school superintendent, or local mayors within 10 miles of the site. There won't even be a sign posted.

Reportedly, the only requirement will be that such a notice appear on the obscure Department of Agriculture website, which one would have to check regularly to have any hope of being fully informed about such requests. Fat chance. And forget legal action later if you didn't comment on the permit in that period.

The proposed rule will confer on the Agriculture Department the authority to issue and modify permits related to liquid animal-waste management systems and to approve design plans and site requirements or take any other action related to liquid animal-waste management systems. In other words, the whole enchilada.

If you have comments on this proposal, reactions are being received by mail until Sept. 16 at Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Attn: Corey Seats, 1 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205, or emailed to rule.comments@agriculture.arkansas.gov.

Thompson has thoughts about it that match my own: "Whose idea was this? Those with vested interests in these enormous polluters of streams and rivers? I can't imagine anyone else would want to restrict public knowledge."

Good questions that deserve answers. Exactly which Arkansas group or agency with a specific vested interest in promoting industrial hog farming with thousands of tons of raw waste is behind or supporting this move to obstruct the widest possible transparency?

It has all the earmarks of a ham-handed effort to make it difficult for Arkansans to know when and where a CAFO is being proposed. So, I'm asking all who do learn of such an application (or even the Department of Agriculture) to email me and I'll gladly make that information public for everyone.