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On March 11, Arkansas’ Governor Beebe will speak at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism. Simultaneously, outside the conference, individuals from across the state plan to rally in support of the preservation of Buffalo National River and the tourism the river supports throughout Arkansas.
The Buffalo River Coalition – which includes the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Ozark Society, National Parks Conservation Association, and Arkansas Canoe Club – plans to attend in support of the Buffalo with information on the C & H Hog Farms threat and media availability with coalition spokespeople.
The Buffalo National River is consistently ranked as the #2 tourist destination in Arkansas and is an economic engine for the Ozarks, where it supports $44 million in spending and 610 jobs annually. C & H, located a few miles upstream on one of the largest tributaries of the Buffalo, threatens that important source of income. Teresa Marks, director of Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), has publicly stated that waste from this concentrated animal feeding operation will likely reach Buffalo National River. When that happens, tourism will suffer. Tourism brings in approximately $6 billion dollars and employs almost 60,000 people in Arkansas. It generates $1.1 billion in salaries. C & H Hog Farms supports 6 jobs.
The coalition urges members of the media to ask the difficult questions that need to be addressed around C & H Hog Farms, including:
- · Why was this massive hog factory permitted with little to no public input, and why won’t the state reopen the permitting process to allow the public to weigh in given the outcry on threats to the river and region?
- · Why is Arkansas so willing to jeopardize 610 tourism-related jobs for the six jobs produced by C & H Hog Farms?
- · Why was the University of Arkansas instructed to use taxpayer money to monitor some manure spray fields that were not included in C & H’s nutrient management plan and general permit?
The Buffalo River Coalition was formed to protect the Buffalo National River from this urgent factory hog farm threat. The coalition filed a lawsuit in August of 2013 challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for their inadequate review and improper authorization of loan guarantee assistance to C&H. More recently, the coalition pointed out additional misrepresentations around the permitting of C & H Hog Farms and called on ADEQ to reopen the permitting process. Those calls have been ignored by the state.
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