Arkansas Times

State legislative committee pushes decision on Buffalo River hog farming rules to December

by Phillip Powell November 14, 2024

A state legislative committee made no decision Thursday on controversial regulations that would impact the future of hog farming in the Buffalo National River watershed, instead punting a possible decision as an agenda item for its next meeting in December. 

One rule, submitted by the state Department of Agriculture, would not require Arkansas farmers to notify nearby residents, businesses or schools about new concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, a type of commercial operation where livestock is raised in confined spaces, resulting in animal waste byproducts that are harmful to the environment. 

The second rule, proposed by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, would permanently ban hog farming in the Buffalo River watershed. (There is currently a temporary moratorium for pig farms in the protected Buffalo National River area.) 

The Administrative Rules Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council did not consider the pair of regulations because the rules were given to the committee late. 

“For members of the audience that are here, we are going to let you come to speak because we are recognizing the time you invested in coming here even though we are not going to take action on it today,” Sen. Kim Hammer (R-Benton), chair of the committee, said of the proposed rules. “And you are welcome to come back next month as well when we will take action, and the reason it is not being considered today is because we would’ve had to have a suspension of the rules. The rules did not get to us in the required time in order to be placed on the agenda like all the other items.”   

About a dozen representatives from organizations opposed to pig farming on the Buffalo River as well as members of the public attended the meeting to express their support for the permanent hog farming ban and opposition to the Department of Agriculture’s rule that would make the permitting process for commercial livestock operations less transparent. 

Hog farming in the Buffalo River watershed has long been a hot button issue after the opening of an industrial pig farm there in 2013 caused widespread public outrage. In 2020, the state closed a deal to buy the farm’s land while also placing a temporary moratorium on swine operations in the watershed. 

“I’m president of the Ozark Society and I represent about 1,000 members,” Brian Thompson said. “My comments are in regard to the removal of public notification language in this rule. Everyone deserves the respect of appropriate public notification. And regarding this rule, there were 670 public comments, about 500 of which expressed concerns around these issues.”

Representatives from the Audubon Delta and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance also attended. 

All in all, the groups have submitted hundreds of comments in favor of a moratorium on hog farms in the Buffalo River watershed, but highly critical of Department of Agriculture efforts to curtail public notice of new hog farms. 

A new state law, passed in 2023, transferred regulatory authority of liquid animal waste disposal systems from ADEQ to the Department of Agriculture. Concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, use those liquid animal waste systems to dispose of copious amounts of waste from hogs or dairy cows, and that waste can pollute waterways with excessive nitrogen and phosphorous runoff.

Now the Department of Agriculture with their new regulatory authority is proposing that farmers wishing to permit new CAFOs would not have to notify nearby neighbors, schools, governments, and newspapers of the permit. The department would also impose a permanent moratorium on hog farms in the Buffalo River Watershed, something environmental groups have long desired to prevent waste pollution in the river.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality followed the Department of Agriculture in proposing a moratorium on hog farms in the Buffalo River Watershed in October. But the ADEQ rule is not used to permit new CAFOs.

According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, Arkansas has 776 concentrated animal feeding operations permitted in the state. All of those CAFOs were not permitted under a federal permitting system that the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality administers in the state. Rather, those permits were provided to those farming operations through the Rule 5 regulations on liquid animal waste that the Department of Agriculture now has authority over.

Sen. Greg Leding (D-Fayetteville) told the Arkansas Times after Thursday’s meeting that the Arkansas Legislative Council could not remove any language from the proposed rules. Either the council would accept and approve the rule, or send it back to the agency.

Thompson, the president of The Ozark Society, said that in its current state, he hopes the legislature will reject the new Department of Agriculture rule at the December hearing.

Arkansas Farm Bureau, as opposed to the environmental groups, has taken a strong stance against a moratorium on hog farms in the Buffalo River Watershed. And they have been silent on the weakened public notice requirements proposed by the Department of Agriculture.

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