For BRWA's position on the Governor's proposal, see previous blog entry.

All who appreciate the magnificence of the Buffalo National River must be pleased to hear Governor Mike Beebe say he will ask the Legislative Council to authorize $250,000 for soil and water tests in and around the new C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea, even if such crucial monitoring comes many months after the fact.

There’s irony in that it also was our state’s Department of Environmental Quality that wrongheadedly permitted this home to as many as 6,500 waste-generating swine atop karst-ridden ground along a major tributary of the Buffalo without insisting this factory farm proactively undertake such testing.

These are the kinds of analyses the ADEQ should have been required of this factory farm and its supplier Cargill Inc. before even considering a permit at this location in Newton County.

In fact, I’m still buffaloed over why groundwater dye testing wasn’t demanded in the watershed of our state’s only national river.

Now the governor has done what certainly appears to be an admirable thing by saying he’ll seek funding for these tests and monitoring using geoscience experts from the University of Arkansas.

In doing so, Beebe said the state can more thoroughly and accurately determine if unsafe levels of hog waste from this factory-known as a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)-could reach Big Creek (which flows alongside several of the factory’s waste dispersal fields) and into the Buffalo. Regulators can thereby be prepared to take preventative action if that occurs, he added.

However, I’ve spoken with several geoscientist types who insist it’s not a question of if that happens in this Ozark Mountain county with more subsurface fractured limestone formations and caves than any other place in Arkansas, but rather when.

Despite Beebe’s intentions, there remain many critics with valid questions. Why is the state taxpayer paying for this pollution monitoring rather than the farmers and Cargill? Why does this monitoring not even begin until October? That’s long after baseline water quality testing should have been done. To begin in October when the hog factory opened in mid-summer could easily show waste contamination present from the hogs that, at this point, could be wrongly attributed to other unknown existing sources.

The National Park Service and Dr. John Van Brahana thankfully have been conducting baseline testing of the area’s water quality since the hog factory began operation, and the state should give their early results the credibility they deserve.

The governor said he chose to act for two reasons: First, everyone who cares about America’s first national river wants to maintain its pristine nature. Second, this hog factory (the likes of which already have fouled once pristine streams and waters in North Carolina, Missouri and other states) is the first in Arkansas to receive a hog CAFO permit under a new general permit adopted nationally.

“The CAFO permit was created two years ago by a change in federal law,” Gov. Beebe said. “This additional testing will help ensure there are no unintended consequences that result from that change.”

I have no doubt the governor’s office has received many complaints about the ADEQ’s misguided permit issued without adequate notice and so effortlessly in the state’s worst possible location.

Now Beebe is on record putting action behind his proclaimed beliefs.

“I have said for years that in most cases a balance can be found between operating our businesses and caring for the environment, ” he said in his weekly radio address. “My hope is such a balance will be possible in Newton County. I recognize that the stakes are especially high when the Buffalo River is involved … For the immediate future, I expect that this extra monitoring will put minds at ease and ensure that America’s first national river will always be protected and preserved.”

Beebe added that legislation could be forthcoming to address this controversy. I’d only add there indeed should be protective statues to make sure this state treasure remains continually protected from contamination in every way possible.

The governor’s announced intentions here also have unspoken consequences for the C&H factory.

Its operators, no doubt fine people and adept at their livelihood, realize they will remain under intense scrutiny as the millions of gallons of waste and airborne emissions from their massive operation are released into the environment and throughout the hamlet of Mount Judea.

I wouldn’t feel at all comfortable with a 24-7 spotlight in the public interest focused on my business. The hog farm’s supplier and sole buyer Cargill Inc. will join them on stage and in the news across Arkansas (and likely the nation) should pollution from their joint operation begin to foul the Buffalo National River.

I still can’t believe this multinational corporation has invested so completely in this such a wholly unacceptable situation. Can America’s largest private corporation possibly be that desperate for yet another hog CAFO?

Thank you, Governor, for stepping to the plate and belting a home run on behalf of the people of Arkansas and those across the nation who regularly visit our spectacular stream. Many of us across Arkansas will continue the scrutiny.

  

Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him atmikemasterson10@hotmail.com.