As promised

It’s off to court we go

Mike Masterson


Folks at a coalition of conservation and citizen groups warned that a lawsuit awaited unless things changed radically with the controversial C&H hog factory approved by our state to grow thousands of Cargill Inc.’s hogs in the Buffalo National River watershed.
Sure enough, those groups filed that lawsuit last week in the U.S. Eastern District against the U.S. Farm Service Agency, the Small Business Administration, and others, seeking to nullify $3.4 million in federal loan guarantees those agencies made to help create the hog factory.
The suit alleges these agencies violated numerous regulations and laws, basically contending they didn’t properly notify the public and failed to conduct a thorough and proper environmental assessment as legally required. The USDA has maintained all along that its Farm Service Agency acted properly. But it’s evident to me how miserably this was handled when even the local National Park Service office responsible for protecting the river wasn’t even notified of the farm’s location until after the state’s Department of Environmental Quality had permitted it and the loan was guaranteed.
Many of us out here believe the approvals were accomplished as quietly as possible. And any realistic concerns expressed after the permitting and questionable federal loan guarantee have been ignored by an arrogant and defensive bureaucracy.
This hautiness was on display most recently when the highly regarded Earthjustice environmental law firm, which filed the lawsuit, issued its specific concerns to the federal agencies, giving them until July 8 to try and arrive at a suitable plan to resolve the matter outside court. Instead of rational responses, Earthjustice received only the sound of silence.
“It’s incredible to think the agencies involved would be so slipshod, indifferent, and evidently blindly confident that they could get away with putting the Buffalo National River at significant risk with something as huge as this CAFO hog farm. The over 110 allegations, and 12 cited violations of laws or well-vetted regulations speaks to the magnitude of the risk to the American citizens’ river that the Small Business Administration and Farm Service Agency have enabled. It’s sad and aggravating the courts have to be called upon to undo this mess,” said Ozark Society Director Duane Woltjen.
So last week came the promised suit, to be presided over by Judge Price Marshall, a former clerk for U.S. District Judge Richard Arnold. One news report indicated Marshall could be familiar with related issues since Arnold, while in private practice, won federal rulings that required full review of decisions made by federal agencies as they related to provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act. That act applies to the new lawsuit.
Among questions I hope are resolved: The extent of the role a Farm Service Agency supervisor (whose wife is related to C&H Farms owners) played in securing his agency’s loan approval, along with his supervision of the extensively questioned environmental assessment submitted with that application.
As for testing, Gov. Mike Beebe intends to request $250,000 in rainyday funds from the Legislature for a University of Arkansas study to obtain some actual facts about runoff patterns in this watershed.
I asked Beebe’s aide, Matt De-Cample, about the request. “Here’s where things stand,” he responded. “The governor does intend to request $250,000 in rainy-day funds from the General Assembly to use for groundwater study and monitoring. To this point, no formal announcement or announcement date has been scheduled. There are additional landowners who would have to participate for any such study and monitoring to be successfully executed. We don’t want to jump the gun and announce anything or submit our formal request to the Legislature until everything is in place. While Arkansas Farm Bureau and Cargill and others have been involved in discussions surrounding the development of this study and monitoring idea, there were no requests to our office to delay any scheduled announcement. We’ll announce when we feel everything is in place that needs to be.”
I’m sure most taxpaying voters across Arkansas will eagerly await this announcement.
Farewell, Chris Battle
Shortly after arriving as editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times in 1995, I was fortunate to hire one of the best and brightest political reporters and editorial page editors I’ve known. Chris Battle had a divine gift for drawing laughter and tears from readers with his wit and compassion. He went on to become a top aide and campaign manager for Asa Hutchinson and then a leading executive with The Adfero Group, a Washington-based public relations firm.
Chris died at age 45 last week after battling kidney cancer for four long years. He leaves behind a wife and two children. Gone from here, yet always alive in the minds and hearts of so many who knew him, including my own.
 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.