It's the politics, stupid 

By Mike Masterson

I was visiting the other day with a former employee of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) about that controversial hog factory the agency wrongheadedly permitted to set up shop two years ago in our treasured Buffalo National River watershed.

He offered an informed response when asked his opinion of why this agency hasn't already acted to schedule a hearing where the substantial evidence collected and analyzed in several scientifically based studies could be accepted and examined to ensure the protection of this river.

Each is said to document levels of microbial contamination in the watershed, which is likely to damage the Buffalo. I asked: "I mean, why wouldn't this agency, whose sole responsibility is to accurately and completely assess any and all credible evidence that could show contamination, want to have every possible fact to examine? Isn't that why this agency even exists? Why shouldn't they insist on having these studies?"

He stared back incredulously. "Now, Mike, you're not stupid," he said, cocking an eyebrow. "Surely you of all people understand how state politics works. This issue and that agency are very political. The only way such a hearing will happen is if the order to hold it comes from above. Either the governor's office or Pollution Control and Ecology, or both, have to tell Environmental Quality they want the hearing held in a purely apolitical manner and let the facts speak for themselves. That's just the way it works."

If that's the case, our Gov. Asa Hutchinson, or the Pollution Control and Ecology commissioners he appoints, indeed needs to step up and do the obviously right thing by our river and the people of Arkansas. Instruct the Department of Environmental Quality to hold an objective hearing (no politickin', lobbyin' or campaign-contributin' involved) to accept all the new studies and results that didn't exist when it so quickly and quietly awarded this factory its general permit. Then intelligently and honestly determine what changes are occurring in the watershed since this factory began accepting up to 6,500 of Cargill's swine to raise.

By my way of thinking, anything less than this kind of necessary fact-finding is indeed purely political and a flagrant dereliction of responsibility to the public, as well as a disgrace to the process of protecting this sacred national river. As I wrote this weekend, a Little Rock law firm is rightfully asking on behalf of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance why these highly relevant studies are being ignored and why the state hasn't slated a hearing to review the permit it issued to C&H Hog Farms. Perhaps that might lead to depositions and answers.

Tell me how you feel, Mr. and Mrs. Arkansas, about a hearing and preserving the quality of your national river. No need to ask my opinion, is there now?

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

Editorial on 09/29/2015