4/24/2015 8:00 PM
By Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Federal agencies will have a year to do a new environmental assessment of a hog farm near the Buffalo National River after a federal appeals court's ruling Friday.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Department of Justice's motion to withdraw its appeal of a December ruling that said the agencies did not properly assess C&H Hog Farm before guaranteeing $3.4 million in private loans.

The move follows a lawsuit brought by the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association and the Ozark Society. They alleged that several federal agencies guaranteed the loans without conducting a sufficient environmental assessment.

"We feel this is a significant victory," said Dane Schumacher, a board member with the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. "In order to guarantee these loans, there are things these agencies should have done. They should have had a consultation with Fish and Wildlife, which they didn't. They should have given notice to the public, and that wasn't done."

In the December ruling, U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. said the Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act in guaranteeing Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas' loans to the C&H Hog Farm.

Under that ruling, the federal agencies have a year to complete appropriate environmental assessments of the operation.

Also Friday, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission reinstated a temporary ban on new permits for large and medium hog farms near the Buffalo National River.

The commission's vote renewing the ban for six months comes two days after Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson's statement supporting the ban.

It's the third moratorium placed on the permits to give the Arkansas Legislature time under new rulemaking processes to review whether to allow future hog-feeding facilities in the watershed.