Hog-farm tests to start in 2014
Leader: UA role is research
By Ryan McGeeney
Posted: October 4, 2013 at 2:28 a.m.
FAYETTEVILLE - Soil and water testing in the areas surrounding a hog farm in Newton County will begin in late winter or early spring of 2014, a University of Arkansas Agriculture Division researcher said Thursday.
Andrew Sharpley, a professor with the university’s Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, was recently appointed to lead a team of researchers in monitoring possible environmental effects associated with C&H Hog Farms, a large animal-feeding operation in Mount Judea.
The Arkansas Legislature approved more than $340,000 to fund the project in September, after the farm - as well as the permitting and approval procedures of several state agencies - drew months of intense public scrutiny.
“It’s still a bit of a work in progress - we still have some questions, and nothing’s set in stone. In the field, things happen. But these are our overarching goals,” said Sharpley, beforedescribing a series of nutrients and pathogens researchers plan to test for beginning next year.
Sharpley addressed a meeting ofthe Fayetteville Rotary Club at a Fayetteville restaurant. The address was arranged by Chuck Culver, director of development for the Agriculture Division and an assistant district governor for the Rotary Club. The district includes 82 clubs in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
The farm, which is permitted to house about 2,500 adult pigs and as many as 4,000 piglets at any time, is also permitted to spread the pig manure over about 630 acres of grasslands around the operation. The acreage is divided into 17 fields, some of which belong to the farm owners, while others are leased from outside parties. Several of the fields abut Big Creek, a major tributary to the Buffalo National River.
Sharpley said he had received permission from the landowners of three of the 17 fields to install equipment that will test for phosphorus and other nutrients in soil and surface water.
Sharpley said he also plans to do dye trace tests, in which traceable chemicals are introduced to a groundwater system at a given point, then monitored to discover where they appear in surface waters. The testing method is crucial in areas such as Newton County where a karst geology is present and has been a top request of critics of the farm, including hydrologist Van Brahana, a former UA professor who has been conducting his own water-quality testing regime in the Buffalo National River near the farm.
Sharpley, who was appointed to lead the research by Agriculture Division Vice President Mark Cochran, said neither the university nor his team was engaging in the research to support any viewpoint on the hog farm.
“We’re a university, not a regulatory agency,” Sharpley said. “Our mission is to provide sound science for others to develop the guidelines to manage this type of operation.”