The Madison County Record

Proposed rule changes regarding a moratorium for hog farms in the Buffalo National River watershed and the skirting of public notice requirements are set to be addressed in December by a subcommittee of the legislative council.

Posted Wednesday, November 20, 2024 9:45 am

By Ellen Kreth, Record Publisher

Decisions on whether to continue a moratorium on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, known as CAFOs, in the Buffalo National River watershed and to change public notice requirements pertaining to hog farms was postponed until December after the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules Subcommittee refused to suspend the rules to take action at its meeting on Nov. 14. 

The required materials were not placed on the committee’s agenda by Oct. 15, forcing it to either vote to suspend the rules or take no action. 

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, made a motion to suspend the rules, but the motion failed to get a second. 

Two regulations affecting hog farms in the watershed and the rules requiring public notice are being rewritten by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).

One rule would make permanent a moratorium on hog farms in the watershed while the other removes a majority of public notice requirements. 

“We were surprised that it even showed up on that agenda because it took some finagling to bend the rules because they missed the normal deadline,” said Gordon Watkins of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. 

Watkins thinks legislators would like this issue decided before the Regular General Assembly of 2025 convenes in January, he said.

“But I think that, and this is just my supposition, they realized this could be a political football and they wanted to get it resolved before the session began so it wouldn’t be a distraction,” he said. 

“We believe that there was almost certainly coordination to not introduce the rule, though we don’t know why,” said Brian Thompson, President of the Ozark Society. 

“Perhaps it was because of the increasing level of public concern in regard to removing all public notification for super-sized hog farms.  Whether it is a noisy data center, a prison, or a 10,000 head hog CAFO, all citizens in our beautiful state deserve the respect of appropriate public notification.”

The committee heard testimony concerning the proposed changes even though no action was taken. When called on by the chair, others in the committee room said they preferred to wait to speak until the committee takes up action on the proposed rules in December.

Notice requirements and the moratorium have been debated and discussed for years after C&H Hog Farms began operating a CAFO in the watershed in 2012. Many neighbors in the watershed near the farm complained of lack of notice about the farm. 

In 2019, the state paid $6.2 million in a settlement agreement to close C&H Farms and give the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, a part of the Division of Arkansas Heritage, a conservation easement to the property, which is near Big Creek, 6.6 miles from where it flows into the Buffalo National River. 

In addition, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued a moratorium banning large-scale swine operations in the watershed.  

During the Regular General Assembly in 2023, the Arkansas Legislature passed a bill that transferred the permitting process from ADEQ to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, which was tasked with reviewing and promulgating rules for liquid animal waste permits. 

That bill, along with a companion bill exempting information about nutrient management plans or poultry litter management plans from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, were sponsored by DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio, a hog farmer.

One regulation would take public notices out of newspapers as well as doing away with the requirement of sending notices via certified mail to adjoining landowners, county judges, school superintendents and mayors.

The proposed regulation would require notices to be posted on the department of agriculture’s website. 

Critics of the proposed rule testified before the committee that merely posting on a website is inadequate because it forces people to check the website everyday in order to make sure they don’t miss any applications. 

A lack of broad public notice limits community engagement and input, they contend. 

Bill Rector, Real Estate broker and former co-owner of the Daily Record, a legal publication, spoke against the proposed changes to the proposed CAFO public notice requirements. 

The prime example of the effectiveness of public notice, Rector said, is C&H Hog Farms, “Where no notice was published anywhere but the DEQ website.”

The lack of notice cost millions of dollars in legal fees and millions to buy the land in addition “years of consternation,” he said. 

“I will guarantee you that there’s been more money spent on that pig farm than there will be spent on public notices during the next 10 years by the State of Arkansas,” Rector told the rules committee members.

He said the issue could have been solved by putting a $50 ad in the newspaper in Newton County, where C&H Farms operated.

“Fifty dollars would have saved millions. Public notice is important,” Rector said. 

Watkins said he would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when the decision was made to dilute the public notice requirements “from what it was even before the C&H thing.”

“As you know the legislature stepped in in 2014 and improved those notice requirements after the C&H controversy. They recognized that was a weak link and they stepped in,” Watkins said.

“So for the legislature to now step in and approve the bill that has really diluted notice requirements doesn’t make sense,” Watkins said. 

Others testified that a continuing implementation of the current moratorium is needed to preserve the Buffalo National River water quality.

Former president of the Ozark Society David Peterson testified that studies show CAFOs damage the river and its water quality. 

Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation is against a moratorium in the watershed. Representatives from Farm Bureau attended the committee meeting to speak against it but opted to offer comments at the December hearing. 

“We’ll see what happens in December,” the bureau’s spokesperson Steve Eddington told The Record. “The committee acts at its own discretion. We remain opposed to the permanent moratorium.”

Watkins said even though the items are scheduled to be heard in December, the committee could choose to not take action.

“My hope is that it will come back to the committee in December and they’ll hear it and make a decision at that point. It needs to be resolved,” Watkins said.