Judge says hog farm loans illegal; Orders environmental study
 
Posted: Wednesday, December 3, 2014 5:00 pm
By DAVID HOLSTED davidh@harrisondaily.com 

In a decision that was lauded by several environment groups, a district judge has ruled that federal agencies illegally guaranteed loans for a factory hog farm in the Buffalo River watershed. The decision came in a lawsuit naming as plaintiffs the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance; the Arkansas Canoe Club; the National Parks Conservation Association; and the Ozark Society. Defendants were the Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency.
District Judge D. Price Marshall of the Eastern District of Arkansas, in a 17-page ruling filed on Dec. 2, found that the federal agencies failed to take a hard look at environmental impacts that would result from the C&H Hog Farms near Mt. Judea. The agencies also failed to follow proper procedures to protect threatened and endangered species potentially affected by the facility.
According to a press release from Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization that worked with local attorneys on the issue, “the Court found that the federal agencies arbitrarily and capriciously guaranteed loans to the C&H factory farm near the Buffalo National River....”
C&H Hog Farms is a 6,500-pig factory farm located in Mount Judea on Big Creek, a major tributary of the country’s first national river, the Buffalo National River. The factory farm is under contract with Cargill, an international producer and marketer of agricultural products.
In his ruling, Marshall said, “The Farm Service Agency says it assessed the environmental issues and its administrative record supports its findings that C&H wouldn’t significantly affect the environment. The Small Business Administration didn’t assess the farm’s environmental effects and says the law didn’t require it to.”
Marshall later noted that the Farm Service Agency’s final environmental assessment did not mention the Buffalo River or Big Creek. Nor did it mention the nearby Mt. Judea school.
“The Court saw the federal government agencies’ actions for what they were undefined a disdain and complete disregard for the laws that protect our environment,” Earthjustice attorney Hannah Chang was quoted in the press release. “We believe the Court’s decision will help to set things straight in this debacle that has put more than $3.6 million in federal taxpayer dollars on the line to support a massive swine factory farm upstream of a treasured national resource.”
The Daily Times contacted Chang at her New York City office.
According to Chang, the immediate ramifications of Marshall’s ruling is that the federal agencies are prohibited from making any payments on the loans until they do the required environmental studies. The court’s order, Chang went on to say, sets a one-year deadline for the study. Chang emphasized that the study must include the public being notified of any informational meetings.
The agencies failure to properly conduct an environmental study was a violation of the law, Chang said.
“The lack of adequate public notice is just one of a number of egregious failures,” Earthjustice said in its press release,”on the part of the state and federal government to ensure that this facility will not have detrimental impacts on the exceptional natural resources of the Buffalo River watershed.
Marshall’s ruling understandably resulted in positive responses from the plaintiffs.
“The Court’s decision today,” said Robert Cross, a board member of the Arkansas Canoe Club, “means that the federal government will actually have to consider the environmental impacts of the hog factory that it made possible undefined something the involved agencies should have done from the very start.”
Emily Jones, Senior Program Manager of the National Parks Conservation Association, considered the ruling an important step forward for the protection of the Buffalo River, the country’s first national river.
“The Buffalo River belongs to the nation and the American people for this and future generations to enjoy and its protection is the responsibility of the federal government,” Jones said.
Robert Cross, president of the Ozark Society, called the flaunting of federal regulations by the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration a severe blow to the people of Arkansas and others who believe in the protection of our natural resources.
“The decision can undo only some of the damage done,” Cross said, “but it will hopefully serve as a message to others who consider similar egregious acts in the future.”
Speaking with the Daily Times, Dane Schumacher, a Buffalo River Watershed Alliance board member, expressed her satisfaction with Marshall’s ruling. She was hopeful that it would mean the laws that are in place now will be followed.
Schumacher had been disturbed that the hog farm had been put in place without proper public notice or input, so the judge’s ruling that public meetings be held was encouraging.
Schumacher was heartened by the cooperation between all the environmental groups during the past two years in working toward a resolution.
“We just wanted to see what happened without jumping to conclusions,” she said. “We just wanted to have a fair assessment.”