MIKE MASTERSON: Back at the factory

Above the Buffalo

By Mike Masterson

Posted: December 8, 2015 at 3:34 a.m.

Meanwhile, back at that hog factory, which thanks to the accommodations of our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough), landed squarely in our Buffalo National River watershed.

I doubt many across our state have forgotten C&H Hog Farms is still there regularly spreading tons of raw swine waste across fields with runoff into the Big Creek, a major tributary of the country's first national river six miles downstream.

For an update, I naturally turned to Dr. John Van Brahana, the Fayetteville geosciences professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas who has voluntarily spent almost three years with his team examining the effects and after-effects of our state allowing the factory into this treasured watershed. He has abundant credibility in my mind because no one is paying him to conduct his testing. He does it simply because he cares deeply for the well-being of the Buffalo River and all it means to this state.

He said he has several observations and findings to share of all that has been transpiring at Mount Judea where the factory is situated.

First, Brahana says he believes "lobbyists and well-compensated special-interest salespeople continue to present inaccurate and misleading statements to generate fear among those who've not had the chance to fully study this highly emotional, political and economic controversy."

The amiable professor then addressed the past year of data collection that reflects the hydrology of Big Creek in the vicinity of this factory by his group and three separate agencies, as well as local, long-term residents and farmers who live along that stream. And all the findings "continue to convince me this agricultural factory is negatively impacting the ground and surface water of Big Creek."

Brahana says he bases his conclusions based on a number of factual findings, which include that during warm-weather months, the dissolved oxygen concentrations in Big Creek dropped below the Environmental Protection Agency's classification limit of "impaired" multiple times.

"Dissolved oxygen is necessary for fish and the ecology of other organisms in the stream and reflects the overall health of this drainage. A sampling of trace metals, which are chemicals in very low concentrations (measured in parts per billion) provide a fingerprint of where groundwater has flowed and the substances it has picked up," he said.

"Our recently initiated trace-metal sampling of springs, wells and streams in Big Creek Valley indicate from 10 to 100 times the background concentrations of trace metals that are components of pig feed are highest near the waste-spreading fields. Nitrate-N concentration in Big Creek [downstream] from the factory continue to be higher than than those measured at a stream study site upstream. Concentrations measured thus far are below EPA limits," he said, adding: "If we wait until EPA limits are exceeded--which appears to be the position of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality--before action is taken, the Buffalo will be imperiled."

The professor said farmers and long-term residents have noted and reported much greater growth of algal mat and biofilms on the bottom of Big Creek since the operation of the CAFO began. "Although this isn't proof of an impact from the CAFO, it is consistent with the other increases we are observing in our analyses. Algal mats and biofilm have an impact upon dissolved oxygen and degrade water health."

Brahana continued with findings that he says should place everyone who cares about the health of the river on alert: "Springs and creeks show highly variable concentrations of microbial organisms such as E. coli and fecal coliform, which is to be expected with rainfall pulses that cause greater flow and greater scouring of sediments on the stream bottom where organisms have been deposited ... the complexity of measuring these [during and after rainfalls] makes it difficult to determine if they show a long-term increase, although current measured values at high stream flow are at levels that can cause illness."

His team's earliest measurements of water quality in the Big Creek Valley conducted in the summer of 2013 when fewer than 1,000 of the factory's 6,500 allotted swine were housed there showed the valley was already near the uppermost limit limits of animal waste it could accommodate.

"Because this represents the earliest and most complete 'preconditions' of the water quality, the addition of thousands of more pigs close to the confluence of Big Creek with the Buffalo National River is consistent with some of the increases we are seeing."

He said dye testing shows groundwater moves through the porous limestone karst subsurface from the area of the waste-spreading fields to many sites within the within the Buffalo at a flow rate of about half a mile each day. This means there is a "remarkably close interaction of surface and groundwater."

He closed by saying the factory's permit is up for renewal soon and that those with an opinion should make their voices heard.

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

Editorial on 12/08/2015