Eureka Springs Independent

 Federal agencies deny karst evidence 
Becky Gillette
Wednesday, March 02, 2016

A 6,500-hog factory in the Buffalo River Watershed is not located in a karst region, marked with springs and underground streams that could provide pathways for toxic hog wastes to pollute one of the more scenic and popular attractions in Arkansas, the Buffalo National River, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), agencies that underwrote loan guarantees for the hog factory.

In late 2014 the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA), the Arkansas Canoe Club and the National Parks Conservation Association won a court ruling that the SBA and FSA had failed to evaluate potential adverse environmental and economic impacts to the region by providing federal loan guarantees to build the C & H Hog Farm. SBA and FSA were required to redo the environmental impact statement, but once again, the agencies issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).”

The hog factory produces hog waste stored in a settling basin, shallow pits and a holding pond that can hold nearly two million gallons of wastewater that is sprayed onto adjacent fields. The amount of waste created is equivalent to what is produced by a city with a population of 30,000.

Experts in karst topography said water pollution is a grave concern.

“The farm is on porous karst geology, therefore seepage into underground water is also nearly certain,” the BRWA said.

“The conclusion that C&H is not located on karst and that groundwater and surface water contamination is not imminent is absolutely based on flawed science,” nationally recognized karst expert Dr. John Van Brahana said. “Data collected over the past two years by my team and submitted to the agencies puts the likelihood of swine waste from C&H Hog Farms finding its way into the Buffalo National River at 95 percent.  These data were completely ignored, as were similar comments from noted hydrologist Thomas Aley, and the opinions of the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey. We have all concluded that the C&H swine operation may have significant adverse impacts, which requires that a full Environmental Impact Statement be prepared.”

Although disappointing, supporters of the Buffalo River said the FONSI is not unexpected. 

“The science used was cherry picked, ignoring anything that did not support the preordained conclusion,” Jack Stewart, vice president BRWA said. “More than fifteen thousand citizens, some of whom were scientists, submitted comments. All of that was ignored. To give you just one example of the inadequacies, there is ample evidence that C&H is built on topography that resembles Swiss cheese – a formation geologists call karst. Yet this finding never acknowledges the obvious fact.”

BRWA members are concerned about potential human health effects.

“People swim, fish, and paddle in the Buffalo River, and may be subject to contact with untreated swine waste,” Dane Schumacher, BRWA board member said. “Well water that people drink may become affected. By denying scientific evidence of karst beneath the C&H operations, SBA and FSA have opened the doors for a wide range of water quality issues likely to be ahead of us. Our coalition remains very concerned about the unprecedented number of pigs, and the amount of pig waste, that has entered the Buffalo River watershed.”

The decision means these agencies have failed to meet their obligations under the law, according to Hannah Chang, attorney with Earthjustice, the public interest environmental law firm that represented the coalition in court. “The likelihood of significant environmental harm to America’s first national river mandates a full Environmental Impact Statement, not a finding of no impact that ignores clear data and hard science,” Chang said. “With so much at risk, we are compelled to consider our next options for legal action.”

It is estimated that 1.3 million people visited the Buffalo National River in 2014 and contributed $65 million to the local economy. Chang said by disputing that seepage of swine waste collected in C&H’s two waste storage ponds and sprayed onto fields will enter a karst system and ultimately flow into the Buffalo National River, the final FONSI erroneously downplays the potential impact of C&H on Arkansas’s tourism economy.

BRWA President Gordon Watkins said federal agencies ignored any data that didn’t agree with the decision upholding the federal loan guarantees. Watkins said the group would move ahead continuing to find legal avenues to stop the hog pollution from adversely impacting the Buffalo River and the people who recreate in it.

“We are discussing the best use of our resources at this stage of the game,” Watkins said. “We have filed a formal complaint with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality against actual issuance of permit. We are asking ADEQ to reopen the permit and allow the public to comment in full like we should have been allowed to do in the first place. We are moving ahead looking for ways we can actually challenge the permit itself. We have to exhaust all avenues as this thing moves along through the legal system.”