It's been a spell since I addressed the latest developments of that hog factory our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough) wrongheadedly permitted to spread untold gallons of raw waste across fields in our precious Buffalo National River watershed.

When we last left the disgraceful saga, geoscientist and professor emeritus John Van Brahana and his band of concerned volunteers were involved with dye and water-quality testing around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo. Let's give Branaha and his crew a richly deserved ovation for their vigilance, which our state has neither financed nor publicly supported.

They're now in the middle of dye-testing beneath the surface of the fragile watershed. Thus far they've discovered just what was expected in the porous limestone subsurface known as karst.

"Our preliminary results indicate the groundwater is moving at about 1,500 to 1,700 feet per day, unquestionably fast for groundwater, but typical for karst groundwater," he said. "Preliminary interpretations are that the dye we've inserted is moving as a plume, spreading out as it moves through the mini-caves in the bedrock, but being replaced by later water, which is added by precipitation."

In other words, whatever winds up on the surface of the surrounding fields trickles down into the bedrock and spreads out through all the fractures and caves.

The last time I wrote on this travesty against common sense (supported by swine supplier and purchaser Cargill Inc.) the National Park Service and others had detected seriously elevated levels of E. coli bacteria in Big Creek very near its confluence with the Buffalo.

More testing was needed to determine whether this pollution was an anomaly caused by rapidly rising waters, or the creek's new normal levels since the hog factory is up and running "full waste" ahead. E. coli bacteria from animals' digestive systems can cause disease and ailments in humans.

Said Brahana: "The high E. coli values could be coming from groundwater spreading on the spray fields that drain down into the karst aquifer, or from intense rainfall events washing the waste and sediments into Big Creek mostly along the surface, or from other animal sources upstream."

Now there are concerns for the river's environmental quality other than bacterial pollution. "Based on what we observed this spring, biomass and algae growth in the stream is much more extensive than last year, prior to the pigs being brought in," he said. "Our background sampling [also] suggests Big Creek basin was impacted by animal production prior to that."

Brahana does feel encouraged in some respects. "Some very positive events are taking place associated with the science. The USGS has installed some continuous monitoring gauges in Big Creek as part of a cooperative agreement with Dr. Andrew Sharpley and his study." Sharpley and his state-funded group from the University of Arkansas also are monitoring water quality around this hog factory that's permitted to hold more than 6,000 swine and leak thousands of gallons of raw waste daily.

Brahana said the USGS will measure the discharge (amount of flow at any one time) of Big Creek. "This will allow the computation of the mass of nutrients in the creek. At one location, they have a probe that measures the amounts of nitrates in the creek, which is a very important nutrient that should help assess one potential contribution from the hog factory."

He said the nitrate probe is set up down from springs that have been dye-traced to the boundary of the farm. The professor said last week that he was returning with his group and volunteers to the testing sites to continue collecting data and examining the karst hydrology.

Meanwhile, it was brought to my attention last week that, in formulating its rules for permitting this first hog concentrated animal feeding operation under a new general permit, our Department of Environmental Quality somehow erased the public-notification requirements that still were present in its second draft.

That requirement would have made it mandatory to notify the Arkansas Department of Health, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the EPA and other obvious stakeholders by email when a CAFO permit was requested. A fine idea!

But it was inexplicably dropped. Instead, the agency's public notification for proposed CAFOs became simply to post such proposals on its website. Why--and how--do you suppose such valid requirements vanished from the second draft?

I've seen a relevant letter from J. Terry Paul of the Health Department sent to the Department of Environmental Quality's Mo Shafii of the permits division back on March 21, 2013.

Paul said our Department of Health, which also learned after the fact about this hog factory's permit, had "concerns that water-borne pathogens including E. coli and cryptosporidium from the proposed land application site may pose a risk for body contact on the Buffalo National River, a popular recreational destination."

And well, well, just look what's been unfolding down on the "farm" today, my friends.

Finally, GOP gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson told me recently that as governor he "will do whatever is necessary to protect the Buffalo." So far, he's the only candidate on record with a firm commitment.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial on 05/25/2014