News media float the Buffalo National River near Gilbert on June 3. The float trip was part of a tour hosted by the National Parks Conservation Association in partnership with several local organizations and was meant to show the pristine beauty of the river. The groups are opposed to a large scale hog farm that has been opened in Newton County near the Buffalo.

Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 6:45 am
By DAVID HOLSTED davidh@harrisondaily.com  

GILBERT   As the flotilla of canoes and rafts made its way languidly down the Buffalo, its progress speeded up occasionally by gentle rapids, it was being watched by curious eyes.
A lanky blue heron went high stepping along the rocky beach before taking wing. Landing downstream, it waited for the fleet to catch up before repeating the procedure.

A bald eagle perched motionless in the boughs of a tree high above the river. As still as the image on a coin, the eagle seemingly took no interest in the canoes gliding past.
Some turtles piggybacked on one another as they sunned themselves on a rock. The stack shortened when one smoothly glided into the water.

The float trip on the Buffalo National River, between Grinder’s Ferry and Gilbert on June 3, was symbolic in a way. Just as the denizens of the river watched closely the activities around them, some of the people in the canoes and rafts were keeping a close eye on the river, and they didn’t always like what they saw.

The float trip was part of a day-long media event hosted by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) in partnership with the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society and the Arkansas Canoe Club. Media representatives from as far away as Memphis, Tennessee, got a taste of life on the Buffalo.

The host groups are very concerned about the future of the Buffalo after a 6,500 hog factory farm started operation last year. They contend that C&H Farms, located near Mt. Judea, was wrongfully permitted to build at its present location. The waste from the hogs, equivalent to a city of 30,000 people, will seep into the highly permeable karst topography and eventually end up in the Buffalo River.

“This is a precious, precious entity,” Dr. John Van Brahana, a retired professor and hydrologist from the University of Arkansas, said of the Buffalo National River.
Brahana was one of the key speakers at a post-float lunch held at the Gilbert Cafe. His studies have been a major arguing point for groups like the NPCA.

The float trip along the pristine Buffalo, the country’s first national river, was balanced in the afternoon by a flyover of the C&H Hog Farms. Media were able to see first-hand the proximity of the farms to Mt. Judea schools, as well as Big Creek, which flows directly into the Buffalo.
Emily Jones, Southeast Program Manager for the NPCA, said her organization has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration for their inadequate review and improper authorization of loan guarantee assistance to C&H Farms.

Jones described her organization as America’s voice for national parks. The NPCA works to make sure that rules and regulations set up to protect the parks are observed.
Jones went on to say that the NPCA had sent letters to Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality director Theresa Marks, expressing concerns that C&H had been placed in the wrong location.

“Her response was ‘Thank you very much. It’s fine,’” Jones said. “We tried to go through dialogue with authorities. They didn’t want to, so we were forced to file a lawsuit.”

Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said he lives in the next valley over from the hog farm. He owns some tourist cabins, and he has floated the Buffalo dozens of times. Describing his group as a boots-on-the-ground operation, Watkins said the alliance’s goals are to stop operation of C&H and to prevent any other concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from starting up along the Buffalo.

Watkins thought there was more opposition to the hog farms than some might imagine.
“We’re finding people are reluctant to speak out,” he said.

He continued by saying that he had real concerns about the effects of the farm on school children in Mt. Judea. He was also concerned about phosphorous from the hog waste ending up in Big Creek, in wells and eventually in the Buffalo River.

“The important message we’ve gotten across,” Watkins said, “is we’re not going away.”
Bob Allen is the Piney Creeks Chapter president of the Arkansas Canoe Club. He said he moved to Arkansas primarily because of the Buffalo River.

“It’s not a matter of if the Buffalo River will be polluted, but when,” said Allen, a former chemistry professor at Arkansas Tech University. “Excess phosphates and nitrates will get in the Buffalo.”

Allen then addressed the eating habits of Americans.
“We all want to eat bacon,” he told the Gilbert Cafe crowd, many of whom were eating ham sandwiches as they listened and took notes, “but we can’t raise it in the watershed of the Buffalo River.”

The star of the lunchtime program was Brahana, who was introduced by Jones as a hydrologist, philosopher and first-rate scientist.

Among the courses Brahana taught at Arkansas were Karst, Environmental Justice and Geology of Our National Parks. Environmental Justice, he explained, dealt with those with money who go into areas without money and put in things that are potentially hazardous to the environment.

Brahana considered the hog farm controversy to be a major concern of political manipulation and one that has fractured the community.

According to Brahana, he has heard rumors that Cargill, which has the contract with C&H Farms, wants out of the situation. In addition, Marks wants out of her job and the governor wants a resolution of the problem, Brahana said.

Brahana explained that he has taken about 40 samples from wells, springs and creeks in the area around the hog farm and has found dangerous concentrations of hazardous materials. He added that he introduced non-toxic dye into the ground across the road from the hog farm. About 30 hours later, he said, it showed up in Big Creek.