Arkansas Times

Senate panel OKs bill to make it harder to stop hog farming near Buffalo River

by Phillip PowellApril 1, 2025 5:09 pm

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed a bill Tuesday that critics say will make it harder for state regulators to protect the Buffalo River, Lake Maumelle, and other watersheds from pollution from industrial farming operations, despite determined public opposition.

Senate Bill 290 passed on a voice vote, meaning the votes of individual committee members weren’t recorded. It next heads to the full Senate for consideration.

The bill would limit the ability of the state Department of Agriculture and the state Department of Energy and Environment to place a moratorium on farming in a watershed. To do so, state agencies would need to propose a rule that would require renewal every four years. Like most state agency rules, it would be subject to approval by the Legislature before going into effect.

The watersheds surrounding both Lake Maumelle and the Buffalo National River have had informal moratoriums for years on permits for  industrial farms called confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The most recent controversy began last fall, when the Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy and Environment proposed making the Buffalo River moratorium permanent. That effort stalled due to opposition from farming interests and legislators.

A previous version of Johnson’s bill would have required the Senate and House Agriculture committees to sign off on any proposed farming moratoriums by state regulators. The original bill failed to pass committee in early March in the face of  bipartisan opposition.

Opposition to CAFOs near the Buffalo in particular led the state to buy out the C&H Hog Farm in 2019 after years of complaints that the operation could be polluting the beloved river. CAFOs concentrate livestock in small areas that produce an immense amount of animal waste that can pollute the air, soil, and nearby bodies of water. 

The Farm Bureau and the Cattlemen’s Association argued that the state’s permanent moratorium proposals would violate the “right to farm.” Johnson has said the Farm Bureau authored the bill. 

While farming industry groups like Johnson’s bill, a network of grassroots conservationists have been heading to Little Rock for months to speak against it.

Johnson’s bill would not strip the Buffalo River and Lake Maumelle of the farming moratoriums currently in place, but they would have to go through review and approval by the Legislature within 90 days of the bill going into effect. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and Ozark Society say that gives farming interests the opportunity to end the moratoriums once and for all.

“I had the great honor of representing the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and a number of other nonprofit organizations in litigation against the C&H Hog Farm regarding the propriety of the hog farm operating on the Buffalo River,” environmental attorney Richard Mays said at Tuesday’s committee meeting. “Moratoriums are not just placed willy nilly by anybody. And I think this bill, with all due respect to Sen. Johnson, is a solution in search of a problem.”

A representative from the Arkansas Farm Bureau argued that farmers’ livelihoods would be threatened if the state could apply permit moratoriums on any watershed. But, as Mays noted, only the watersheds near Lake Maumelle and the Buffalo River have had such a moratorium in place.

Johnson said his bill would create a process by which each moratorium could be considered on its merits. 

Previously, several Republican committee members expressed opposition to Johnson’s bill. The Arkansas Times reported last month that Republican legislators said Johnson was negotiating the details with Gov. Sarah Sanders. But the “yes” votes were much louder on Tuesday’s vote, and the committee’s chair declared it had passed.

“There’s been a lot of testimony here today that should come when this bill is put in place,” Johnson said. “We are not here to debate the value of the Buffalo River or the moratorium. This is a process … that allows the Legislature the oversight over the departments that we, the Legislature, create. And it also gives us a better step in the rulemaking process to better protect agriculture production in the state of Arkansas.”