Public Meeting Held on Potential Fate of Hog Farms
Grant Sloan
06/17/2014 10:36 PM06/17/2014 10:46 PM
HARRISON, Ark. -- Proposed regulations on hog farms on the Buffalo River Watershed was the topic of heated debate in Harrison, Arkansas Tuesday night.
The proposals brought forward by the Ozarks Society and the Public Policy Panel would keep existing "large" hog farms, on the Buffalo River watershed, from increasing in size.
It would also keep the DEQ from issuing permits to new hog farms with more than 750 hogs over 55 pounds, along with farms with more than 3,000 hogs under the 55 pound limit.
"One of our objective is the get C& H removed," Ozarks Society President Robert Cross says, referring the to the 6,500 head hog farm that has acted as a catalyst for the proposed regulations, "we're working in that direction, but another objective is to keep it from happening again."
"I can see (the owners) side, but I still think the risk is so great, regardless, that we have to protect the Buffalo River," says Cross.
Supporters of the proposed regulations, like Cross, say their own scientific studies show that hog waste from "medium" or "large" sized farms can seep into the ground, due to the porous nature of the rock in the area.
They say the studies show that waste can show up more than three miles down stream - streams that are used by more than one million visitors each year.
Opponents to the proposed new regulations are concerned this would only be the beginning, of future regulations on other farms like dairy and poultry.
"These same groups tried to get legislation passed to ban hog farms in the buffalo watershed and what's know as the extraordinary resource water shed," says opponent and Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation representative, Evan Teague. "Had they done that it would have encompassed 42 percent of the state's land mass in Arkansas."
Teague says many farmers in the Buffalo River watershed are concerned the proposed regulations are unnecessary, because he says past studies conducted by the DEQ have show little to no impact coming from hog waste and the distribution process.
He says many of the farms used in that study are also 40 years old now, and that regulations on "waste lagoons" has improved during that time.
Comments from the meeting will go into a response to public document by the DEQ, and will then handed over to legislative committees.
Arkansas Governor, Mike Beebe, has requested that the University of Arkansas conduct a study on the impact of hog farms in the Buffalo River watershed, but it's expected to take five years.