Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
Perhaps the biggest flaw in the no impact finding is the conclusion that the water quality of the Buffalo River will not be significantly affected. The federal agencies based this conclusion on inaccurate information and analysis that the swine facility site does not exhibit karst hydrogeology, turning a blind eye to the overwhelming scientific consensus and the comments of the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to the contrary. In fact, the Coalition alerted the federal agencies that the authors of an Oklahoma State University study, which the agencies misinterpret as supporting their faulty determination, have in fact found a “major fracture and movement of waste” underneath the site. But the final no impact finding entirely overlooks this critical information. The final FONSI rehashes the federal agencies’ long-standing and untenable denial of the facility’s potential impacts on water and air quality, public health and the health of the children who attend school next to C&H’s operations, endangered or threatened species, the general quality of life of local communities, and the almost certain pollution of the nearby Buffalo National River. “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,” said nationally recognized karst expert Dr. John Van Brahana. “The 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.” The swine facility could devastate the tourism industry that is the lifeblood of Newton County and the surrounding area. The Buffalo National River relies on clear waters and a pristine environment to attract tourists to enjoy recreational activities such as swimming, kayaking, and blue-ribbon fishing. In fact, over 1.3 million people visited the Buffalo National River in 2014 and contributed $65 million to the local economy. 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. “People swim, fish, and paddle in the Buffalo River, and may be subject to contact with untreated swine waste. The well water that people drink may become affected,” said Dane Schumacher, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance Board member. “By denying the 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.” “With this FONSI, the agencies have failed to meet their obligations under the law,” said Hannah Chang, attorney with Earthjustice, the public interest environmental law firm that represented the Coalition in court and on the comments. “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. With so much at risk, we are compelled to consider our next options for legal action.”
By Mike Masterson
This article was published today at 2:08 a.m.
Meanwhile, back along the majestic Buffalo National River, one of our state's brightest jewels for recreation and tourism.
Kevin Cheri, superintendent of the Buffalo River National Park Service office at Harrison, in October sent a letter to Becky Keogh, the latest director of our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough) asking that agency to place three tributaries of the Buffalo on its annual list of "impaired waterbodies."
Such a designation falls under requirements cited in the federal Clean Water Act.
Cheri's request included his agency's documentation of sustained fecal E. coli contamination in Mill Creek, as well as significantly low levels of dissolved oxygen in Bear Creek and Big Creek, the stream that flows alongside C&H Hog Farms at Mount Judea.
Did our agency for preserving water quality, which allowed the hog factory to set up shop on the Buffalo watershed, agree with Cheri and include these three creeks with obvious environmental problems?
Why, of course not. These streams won't even be considered for inclusion on the list until 2018. It seems folks at the Buffalo National River didn't make the March 31, 2015, deadline for inclusion in its latest list. And heaven forbid our state's official environmental watchdogs add three contaminated streams to their official list (despite documentation) after their deadline.
How could the Park Service possibly have met the deadline since its summer-long study didn't even begin until four months after the deadline had passed?
Cheri's letter cited findings of this contamination was documented over the summer primarily by the agency's aquatic ecologist Faron Usrey.
The water-quality studies showed E. coli levels in Mill Creek were significantly elevated during July, August and September to the point where Cheri said the pollution was likely to place the Buffalo River "out of compliance for primary contact recreation."
Other summer studies showed the levels of dissolved oxygen in Bear and Big Creeks had reached levels well below acceptable standards for maintaining healthy aquatic life. Bear Creek does continue to be listed, as it has for years, because of the inordinate amount of "total dissolved solids" contained in its flow.
The U.S. Geological Survey says: "The oxygen dissolved in lakes, rivers and oceans is crucial for the organisms and creatures living in it. As the amount of dissolved oxygen drops below normal levels ... the water quality is harmed and creatures begin to die off ... a process called eutrophication."
Rapidly moving water as in Ozark streams tends to contain a lot of dissolved oxygen; stagnant water contains less, the agency says. "Bacteria in water can consume oxygen as organic matter decays. Thus, excess organic material can cause eutrophic conditions, which is an oxygen-deficient situation that can cause a water body 'to die.' Aquatic life can have a hard time in stagnant water that contains a lot of rotting, organic material in it, especially in summer (the concentration of dissolved oxygen is inversely related to water temperature), when dissolved-oxygen levels are at a seasonal low."
In Cheri's letter to Keogh advocating adding the streams to the Impaired Waterbodies list, he noted that species such as freshwater mussels "are part of the suite of scenic and scientific resources Congress expected to be conserved when the Buffalo National River was established. [The National Park Service] needs the assistance of [the Department of Environmental Quality] in determining the sources of low dissolved oxygen and reducing or eliminating these sources."
Katherine Benenati, Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson, explained her department's response this way: The three creeks mentioned in the National Park Service's letter have not been listed on the most current proposed draft list.
"The period of record reviewed for the 2016 list ended March 31, 2015. ADEQ staff is currently reviewing the data and it will also be considered as part of the data record which will be evaluated for the next cycle occurring in 2018," she continued.
"Our staff has had an ongoing dialogue with the National Park Service. ADEQ employees reached out to NPS staffers via phone after the most recent letter to address their concerns and have had several conversations. We have a very open line of communication with the National Park Service and will continue such discussions."
I asked Cheri about any response or conversations he's had with Keogh or others at the agency in response to his letter. He said he'd heard nothing as of last week, but one of his staffers might have indeed communicated with someone there about the three streams.
The department has scheduled a public hearing for March 1 at its office in North Little Rock where the state's 2016 list of impaired waterbodies is expected to be be discussed. Those interested best not miss that deadline.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 02/07/2016
Environmental and community groups worried about the impact of C&H Hog Farm, a 6,500 hog operation near the Big Creek tributary to the Buffalo National River, are raising concerns about what they say is a serious oversight by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Officials from the National Park Service recommended to ADEQ that Big Creek and two other tributaries of the Buffalo be declared “impaired waters” under the Clean Water Act. ADEQ's recently released draft list of impaired water bodies failed to include Big Creek or the other streams, however. ADEQ will have a public hearing on March 1 at 2 pm to take public comments on the draft. Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance said that Big Creek is having environmental problems that may be related to the hog farm. Watkins got in touch by email:
Back in October, the National Park Service/ Buffalo National River sent a letter to ADEQ recommending that Big Creek and two other tributaries of the Buffalo be declared “impaired waters” and asking that they be included on the 2016 303(d) Clean Water Act List Of Impaired Waters in Arkansas. Buffalo River Watershed Alliance received a copy of the letter via a FOIA request to ADEQ. According to USGS data, Big Creek has been chronically below the ADEQ minimum allowable limit for dissolved oxygen. Low dissolved oxygen is a result of excessive algae growth due to high nutrient levels and can have a serious negative impact on aquatic life and overall water quality. High nutrient levels can come from many sources but it’s a pretty safe bet, and common sense suggests, that a 6,500 head hog factory in the watershed may be a contributing factor. However, ADEQ recently released their Draft 2016 Impaired Waterbodies List and neither Big Creek, nor the other two streams recommended by NPS are included. To our knowledge, ADEQ has provided no explanation for disregarding the advice of NPS, the accepted and most respected stewards of the Buffalo. For streams on the 303(d) list, measures must be taken to identify the sources of impairment and steps must be taken to reduce their impact. The 303(d) list is prepared every 2 years and ADEQ is having a public hearing on March 1 at 2 pm to discuss the draft 2016 303(d) list. We think the public should be made aware of this oversight by ADEQ and that citizens concerned with preserving the extraordinary waters of the Buffalo should attend this hearing and submit their comments for the record.
NEWS RELEASE: January 29, 2016
CONTACTS:
, Senior Hydrogeologist, (417) 785-4289, taley@ozarkundergroundlab.com (for supporting comments on science)
LINK TO ONLINE PRESS RELEASE & BUFFALO RIVER COALITION COMMENTS ON THE FSA/SBA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2016/comment-period-ends-on-environmental-assessment-for-industrial-hog-facility-near-buffalo-river
Comment Period Ends on Environmental Assessment For Industrial Hog Facility Near Buffalo River
Coalition opposes conclusions of “no impact” made by federal agencies
Little Rock, Arkansas -- The public comment period for a hotly contested environmental assessment of an industrial hog facility in the Buffalo River watershed ended today. This assessment prepared by two federal agencies—the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA)--was required by a federal judge who found in a lawsuit filed by the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Ozark Society (the Buffalo River Coalition), that the agencies had failed to adequately consider C&H Hog Farm’s impacts on the environment. The agencies’ reevaluation, however, repeats the initial “finding of no significant impact” (FONSI) about C&H’s impacts.
Contrary to the agencies’ conclusions, the facts and best available science show that the unprecedented 6,500-swine C&H operation located in the watershed of the Buffalo National River may indeed have a significant adverse impact on the environment.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in the agencies’ analysis is the unsupported conclusion that the industrial hog facility will have no adverse impacts on water quality—a conclusion that is grounded in the scientifically inaccurate supposition that C&H is not situated on karst. That claim has been thoroughly discredited by experts in the field and the National Park Service, and flies in the face of the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community. Karst is characterized by porous underground geology and drainage systems that enable rapid subsurface water movement. The likelihood of swine waste collected in C&H’s two waste storage ponds and sprayed onto fields finding its way in a karst system into the groundwater and ultimately the Buffalo National River is 95 percent, according to nationally recognized hydrogeologist and karst expert Dr. John Van Brahana.
“The failure by the federal agencies to consider karst and the related water impacts is a fatal flaw in their scientific analysis and discredits most of the findings in the Environmental Assessment and FONSI,” said Dr. Brahana. “The conclusion that there are no impacts on the Buffalo National River or on public health, is predicated on erroneous assumptions. The science shows that this swine operation may have significant adverse impacts, which requires that a full Environmental Impact Statement be prepared.”
Both the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, which have more direct and relevant expertise than the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration on the geology and hydrogeology of the Ozark region, concur with the statements of scientific experts that C&H is located in a karst system dominated by closely interconnected groundwater and surface water flow.
“A ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ ignores the considered wisdom of more than a few credible scientists,” said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “The Buffalo River Coalition believes there is sufficient risk that environmental damage may or will occur at C&H Hog Farms, that the agencies have dismissed sound science to make a no impact finding, and should be made to produce a full Environmental Impact Statement. A full Environmental Impact Statement is necessary to fully consider the potential significant impacts the agencies have chosen to overlook.”
BACKGROUND
On August 6, 2013, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and The Ozark Society in Arkansas represented by nonprofit law organization Earthjustice, Earthrise Law Center, and attorney Hank Bates filed a lawsuit against the USDA and SBA challenging the validity of loan guarantees made in 2012 to C&H Hog Farm, an industrial hog facility in the Buffalo National River Watershed. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled on December 2, 2014 that the loan guarantees to C&H were issued without an adequate environmental assessment, violated both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and ordered the agencies to take a second look at C&H’s environmental impacts. In August 2015, the two federal agencies released their revised environmental assessment and arrived at the same conclusion that they had arrived at unlawfully in 2012. The public comment period for the final environmental assessment and draft FONSI ends January 29, 2016.
The pristine waters of the Buffalo River, Arkansas’ crown jewel, meander for 150 miles through the Arkansas Ozarks. The economic importance of the river to the region cannot be overstated. Approximately 1.3 million visitors visit the river each year according to the National Park Service, spending more than $50 million in the surrounding communities.
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Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law organization dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. Earthjustice.org
Arkansas Times
The latest from the ongoing battle over the C&H Hog Farm in Mt. Judea, near the Big Creek tributary to the Buffalo National River: The public comment period ended today for a controversial environmental assessment of the 6,500-hog operation. The assessment came about because of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental and community organizations; a federal judge found that two federal agencies had failed to adequately assess C&H's environmental impact when they approved the operation in 2013. The agencies re-evaluation again found "no significant impact." “A ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ ignores the considered wisdom of more than a few credible scientists,” said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, in a press release. “The Buffalo River Coalition believes there is sufficient risk that environmental damage may or will occur at C&H Hog Farms, that the agencies have dismissed sound science to make a no impact finding, and should be made to produce a full Environmental Impact Statement. A full Environmental Impact Statement is necessary to fully consider the potential significant impacts the agencies have chosen to overlook.” Watkins and others in the coalition raising concerns about C&H argue that the potential for problems is magnified because of the unique karst geology of this region in the Ozarks, with its irregular limestone formations. Karst areas are unusually porous and can have caves or sinkholes in unexpected places. Water often disappears underground; it's extremely unpredictable where that water will reappear. Dr. John Van Brahana, a recently retired University of Arkansas geology professor and a renowned karst expert, has been sounding the alarms about C&H Hog Farm for several years and has been doing ongoing pollution testing in the area. From the press release:
“The failure by the federal agencies to consider karst and the related water impacts is a fatal flaw in their scientific analysis and discredits most of the findings in the Environmental Assessment and Finding Of No Significant Impact,” said Dr. Brahana. “The conclusion that there are no impacts on the Buffalo National River or on public health, is predicated on erroneous assumptions. The science shows that this swine operation may have significant adverse impacts, which requires that a full Environmental Impact Statement be prepared.”
NEWS RELEASE: January 29, 2016 Comment Period Ends on Environmental Assessment For Industrial Hog Facility Near Buffalo River Coalition opposes conclusions of “no impact” made by federal agencies Little Rock, Arkansas — The public comment period for a hotly contested environmental assessment of an industrial hog facility in the Buffalo River watershed ended today. This assessment prepared by two federal agencies—the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA)—was required by a federal judge who found in a lawsuit filed by the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and the Ozark Society (the Buffalo River Coalition), that the agencies had failed to adequately consider C&H Hog Farm’s impacts on the environment. The agencies’ reevaluation, however, repeats the initial “finding of no significant impact” (FONSI) about C&H’s impacts. Contrary to the agencies’ conclusions, the facts and best available science show that the unprecedented 6,500-swine C&H operation located in the watershed of the Buffalo National River may indeed have a significant adverse impact on the environment. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the agencies’ analysis is the unsupported conclusion that the industrial hog facility will have no adverse impacts on water quality—a conclusion that is grounded in the scientifically inaccurate supposition that C&H is not situated on karst. That claim has been thoroughly discredited by experts in the field and the National Park Service, and flies in the face of the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community. Karst is characterized by porous underground geology and drainage systems that enable rapid subsurface water movement. The likelihood of swine waste collected in C&H’s two waste storage ponds and sprayed onto fields finding its way in a karst system into the groundwater and ultimately the Buffalo National River is 95 percent, according to nationally recognized hydrogeologist and karst expert Dr. John Van Brahana. “The failure by the federal agencies to consider karst and the related water impacts is a fatal flaw in their scientific analysis and discredits most of the findings in the Environmental Assessment and FONSI,” said Dr. Brahana. “The conclusion that there are no impacts on the Buffalo National River or on public health, is predicated on erroneous assumptions. The science shows that this swine operation may have significant adverse impacts, which requires that a full Environmental Impact Statement be prepared.” Both the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, which have more direct and relevant expertise than the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration on the geology and hydrogeology of the Ozark region, concur with the statements of scientific experts that C&H is located in a karst system dominated by closely interconnected groundwater and surface water flow. “A ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ ignores the considered wisdom of more than a few credible scientists,” said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “The Buffalo River Coalition believes there is sufficient risk that environmental damage may or will occur at C&H Hog Farms, that the agencies have dismissed sound science to make a no impact finding, and should be made to produce a full Environmental Impact Statement. A full Environmental Impact Statement is necessary to fully consider the potential significant impacts the agencies have chosen to overlook.” BACKGROUND On August 6, 2013, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and The Ozark Society in Arkansas represented by nonprofit law organization Earthjustice, Earthrise Law Center, and attorney Hank Bates filed a lawsuit against the USDA and SBA challenging the validity of loan guarantees made in 2012 to C&H Hog Farm, an industrial hog facility in the Buffalo National River Watershed. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas ruled on December 2, 2014 that the loan guarantees to C&H were issued without an adequate environmental assessment, violated both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and ordered the agencies to take a second look at C&H’s environmental impacts. In August 2015, the two federal agencies released their revised environmental assessment and arrived at the same conclusion that they had arrived at unlawfully in 2012. The public comment period for the final environmental assessment and draft FONSI ends January 29, 2016. The pristine waters of the Buffalo River, Arkansas’ crown jewel, meander for 150 miles through the Arkansas Ozarks. The economic importance of the river to the region cannot be overstated. Approximately 1.3 million visitors visit the river each year according to the National Park Service, spending more than $50 million in the surrounding communities.
Citizens concerned about pollution regarding the C&H Hog Farm near Big Creek in Mt. Judea, Ark., have a little more time to raise their concerns about the recent environmental assessment by two federal agencies of the facility.
The Buffalo River Coalition claim the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) assessment fails to consider the C&H hog facility’s impacts on water resources, air emissions, and on the public health and quality of life of the Mt. Judea community and the nearby Buffalo National River. However, the hog facility has been approved for all necessary permits by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to operate.
The deadline has been extended to Jan. 29 for the public to send their comments by mail to: C&H Hog Farms EA, c/o Cardno, Inc., 501 Butler Farm Road, Suite H, Hampton, VA 23666, and by email at: CHHogFarmComments@cardno-gs.com.
“From our viewpoint, we’re stunned at some of the things they found in environmental assessment and determination of FONSI is really unbelievable,” said Dane Shumacher, a board member of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “It’s important for people to weigh in because at this stage in the game they can still be influenced and hopefully take the road of doing further investigation.”
The hog facility, five miles from the edge of the Buffalo River and nearby to the Mt. Judea school, was approved by the ADEQ in 2011 to house 6,503 pigs in 2,500 pens. An animal facility of that size is called a Confined Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO. The facility was built in 2013, and many residents nearby were unaware it was being built until it was nearly complete. Laws have since been improved to provide better notice to nearby residents of such facilities.
The manure beneath the pig pens is transferred to a waste lagoon that’s rated to hold about 2 million gallons of raw sewage annually, or about the amount of waste a city of 30,000 people creates. From there, trucks pump the waste into holding tanks and drive out to 600 acres of pasture to spray the waste out into the fields as a fertilizing method, called a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) as allowed by state permit. However, half of the field lies nearby in the floodplain of Big Creek, which is a river that empties into the Buffalo River. Airborne waste emissions polluting the air nearby Mt. Judea inhabitants breathe in are also a concern.
The fields that are used to spray the waste to fertilize the fields are believed to be located atop karst geology — which means the land has a thin topsoil above very porous rocky (in this case limestone) ground — and would be unable to handle the amount of nutrient spray to properly filter the toxic bacteria from the manure in the soil. In a karst environment, ground water moves rapidly alongside surface water, and can be difficult to predict how and where it flows. So, there is concern that the waste being sprayed near Big Creek could seep into the ground water and pollute the Buffalo River, which is a federally preserved river.
In the FONSI environmental assessment, the two agencies that conducted it, the Small Business Association and Farm Service Agency, denied that the hog farm and its NMP fields sit atop karst geology.
John Van Brahana, a retired University of Arkansas geology professor and karst expert, explained in a letter to the ADEQ that they only considered surface water in their first environmental assessment. In a karst environment, often times surface and ground water run together because of the porous nature of the underground limestone.
“I know of no active karst consultant who recommends that a CAFO be sited on karstified limestone, particularly upgradient from so sensitive a natural resource as the Buffalo National River, with its direct-contact use by canoeists, fishermen, and swimmers,” Brahana wrote in the letter.
Brahana is currently conducting dye studies to observe the flow of water near the C&H spray fields.
Additionally, more than 70 scientific studies and papers have documented the health dangers to human life and the environment around CAFO facilities. Most notably, a 2008 study by Pew Institute — a non-partisan think tank — compiled data on health CAFOs regarding public health, environment and animal welfare and concluded that such operations need to be phased out due to their adverse effects.
“This is a travesty, it should never have been permitted. There’s a lot of stuff being put to light, but right now people need to make their comments for the record,” said Ginny Masullo, a member of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “We have to as citizens. Our governmental bodies aren’t doing the protections we need. If we don’t make them do it, it’s not going to get done.”
The Buffalo River’s water is regarded as pristine. The river flows for over 150 uninterrupted miles through the Ozarks. On March 1, 1972, Arkansas’s Buffalo River was named the first national river in the United States. It was slated to be dammed up back in the 1960s. After years of work by conservationists like Neil Compton and Ken Smith, it is now one of the few free-flowing rivers in the continental U.S.
In 2014, the National Park Service reported that 1.3 million visitors annually spend $56.6 million in the gateway communities surrounding the national park.
Upcoming Buffalo River Events
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
January 12, 2016
NWA LETTERS
Posted: January 12, 2016 at 1 a.m.
·
Hog farm assessment raises questions
The latest environmental assessment, or EA, regarding the 6,500-hog factory in the Buffalo River’s watershed generates more questions than answers.
The EA states: “Application of wastes to fields would have no effects to geology. The geotechnical investigation did not encounter karst features beneath the C&H Hog Farm facilities. There would be no direct and indirect impacts to geology since disruption of underlying bedrock would not occur from farm operations.”
No effects to geology? The concern is how the karst terrain coupled with spraying thousands of gallons of untreated hog waste onto fields may effect groundwater. This EA’s statement illustrates a remarkable negligence in understanding the concerns of renowned geologists regarding karst. Karst systems are vulnerable to ground water pollution due to the relatively rapid rate of water flow and the lack of a natural filtration system
The EA’s statement that “geotechnical investigation did not encounter karst features beneath the C&H Hog Farms facilities” is full of holes. The geotechnical investigation is not an actual karst survey. Additionally, Big Creek Research Extension Team, the taxpayer-funded study through the University of Arkansas, is characterized as the “best available science.” It is limited in scope, at best, but even this EA’s “go-to” source employed an Electrical Resistivity Imaging study done by Oklahoma State University. That “possibility of hog manure electrical signatures present on Field 12.”
Big Creek itself is a losing stream, which is a karst feature. Strange this EA disagrees, saying more data is needed. Are we to believe C&H sits in a karst-free bubble when karst geologists and the ERI tests say otherwise?
Impairment of the Buffalo River and its feeding streams occurs over time. Big Creek may already be impaired. The National Park Service has requested our Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to look at data regarding low dissolved oxygen levels. Dissolved oxygen is vital for aquatic animals and plants. Couple that with the Extension Team report of elevated E.coli levels in the house well of C&H and in interceptor trenches around the facility. Does it not make sense that the untreated waste from 6,500 hogs held in open pits and then spread on fields nearby could further impair the quality of the water?
C&H farm has applied to truck untreated hog waste away to other locations miles from C&H but still in the watershed. Why apply if there is not concern about impairment/contamination? This facility should never have been permitted. This so called final EA uses ambiguous language to obscure the facts. If there is inconclusive evidence how can the EA conclude there is no significant impact?
C&H Hog factory and this EA generate too many questions and not enough answers. We, the people, will make the difference as to whether this facility and others like it can proliferate in the watershed of the crown jewel of Arkansas.
The public comment period has been extended to Jan. 29. Written comments will be accepted by mail at: C&H Hog Farms EA, c/o Cardno Inc., 501 Butler Farm Road, Suite H, Hampton, VA 23666; and by email at: CHHog-FarmComments@cardno-gs.com.
GINNY MASULLO
Fayetteville
letters@nwadg.com
Posted: January 2, 2016 at 2:06 a.m.
It made my heart race even faster when I heard that the controversial hog factory our state so wrongheadedly misplaced in the Buffalo National River watershed is testing revolutionary swine-waste-vaporizing equipment.
Just maybe, instead of regularly dumping millions of gallons of the potent raw hog waste on fields around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo, where it can seep into the subsurface karst terrain, now all that poop might just amazingly poof into thin air.
How glorious is that? Waste in, clean, refreshing air out. Sounds like something we might see out of street magician David Blaine, or munching popcorn with wide eyes in a Las Vegas theater of prestidigitation, don't you think?
Imagine the excitement as a couple of stage hands, to the tune of "Happy Days Are Here Again," roll large wheelbarrows filled with the stuff hogs naturally create and dump it into a whirring metallic machine. Then a magician waves his wands, turns up the heat and presto-chango! Only pleasantly scented breezes flow from a pipe on the opposite side.
That's, in effect, pretty much what the Plasma Energy Group from Port Richey, Fla., insists will happen using "plasma arc pyrolysis" that vaporizes potent waste within a closed-loop system.
The group says its technology was tested in October at Sandy River Farm in Conway County. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality had people on site during those tests and apparently has received data from Plasma Energy from earlier testing in Florida.
The department says it's still processing the results to determine if C&H Hog Farms will have to obtain an air-quality permit to fire up the super-duper poop-poofer at Mount Judea, according to reporter Emily Walkenhorst. Plasma Energy Group had applied for such a permit in September before the Conway County test.
I'm still a tad unclear about where things stand with all the red tape since the Department of Environmental Quality said it hadn't received all the data from Conway County yet. Yet the equipment apparently already has arrived at C&H for additional testing there. Any information beyond that, well, was pretty much like trying to interview thin air.
Here is what Walkenhorst, who has closely followed the C&H story, reported the other day: "Attempts to reach Plasma Energy Group representatives over the past two weeks have been unsuccessful. The group's website could no longer be found, and the company's phone number was disconnected sometime between Dec. 18 and Dec. 22. However, Florida Department of State Division of Corporations records accessed Dec. 22 indicate the company is still active.
"Jason Henson, co-owner of C&H Hog Farms, did not return voice mails asking about the vaporizing technology or the results of any testing. The equipment was not in use at C&H Farms as of Dec. 18, Department of Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh said in a letter to the Arkansas Canoe Club, the Ozark Society, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance--four groups who have fought C&H Hog Farms' operation in Mount Judea."
Those groups seem less than impressed with the state's approach, as well as the emerging vaporizing technology.
For instance, Gordon Watkins, who heads the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said his group knew of the testing at the Sandy River Farm in Conway County Farm before Keogh sent her letter.
But Watkins and others believe the state should not allow testing to go forward in such an environmentally sensitive and valuable area without fully understanding any and all emissions such technology produces. "We found it just unacceptable that ADEQ is letting such an experimental process go forward," he told Walkenhorst.
My thoughts about this hog factory being so grossly misplaced in our state's national treasure in God's Country haven't changed.
So many across our state and even nationally continue to wonder why our agency supposedly dedicated to preserving environmental quality would ever have allowed such a place to set up in the Buffalo National River watershed to begin with.
Randall Mathis, who passed away Monday, told me that during his tenure with what was then the Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, he acted to protect and preserve the Buffalo with a moratorium on allowing animal factories (and the enormous contamination they invariably produce) into that sacred watershed.
But somewhere, sometime, and by someone else's decisions after Mathis departed, that moratorium simply evaporated. I detect the stench of politics, don't you?
No one can explain to public satisfaction why our state has invested hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars and contorted itself into a warm pretzel to protect this factory that so many believe shouldn't be in this location. Why not say "our bad," make the politically connected family than owns it financially whole, then shut it down? What is it that makes the state's investment and the serious risks to the river and environment worthwhile to preserve for the common good?
That includes the need for an astounding, super-duper pig-poop poofer.
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 01/02/
By Emily Walkenhorst
This article was published today at 3:18 a.m
Equipment to vaporize pig manure has made its way to C&H Hog Farms after being tested at a hog operation in Conway County.
To ease fears that hog waste could pollute the Buffalo National River, C&H Hog Farms owners opted to work with Plasma Energy Group, based in Port Richey, Fla., which specializes in the technology called plasma arc pyrolysis. The technology essentially vaporizes materials in a closed loop.
After more than a year of saying that the technology would soon be used at C&H Farms, Plasma Energy Group tested it Oct. 9 at Sandy River Farm in Conway County, according to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Cargill Inc., which owned Sandy River Farm at the time, offered that farm for the testing site. (In November, JBS USA Pork completed the purchase of Cargill's pork division.)
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality had personnel present for the Sandy River Farm testing and received additional data from testing on hog waste in Florida in September.
The department has yet to determine whether the company will need a state air permit to operate the waste-disposal method.
"We are still evaluating that," spokesman Katherine Benenati said in an email.
Air permits are required if emissions are expected to exceed certain levels.
Plasma Energy Group applied for an air permit on Sept. 18, 2014.
The department does not yet have the data from the Sandy River Farm testing and so has not formed an assessment, but the plasma arc pyrolysis equipment has been moved to C&H Hog Farms for additional testing.
Attempts to reach Plasma Energy Group representatives over the past two weeks have been unsuccessful. The group's website could no longer be found, and the company's phone number was disconnected sometime between Dec. 18 and Dec. 22. However, Florida Department of State Division of Corporations records accessed Dec. 22 indicate that the company is still active.
Jason Henson, co-owner of C&H Hog Farms, did not return voice mails asking about the vaporizing technology or the results of any testing.
The equipment was not in use at C&H Farms as of Dec. 18, Department of Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh said in a letter to representatives of the Arkansas Canoe Club, the Ozark Society, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance -- four groups that have fought C&H Hog Farms' operation in Mount Judea.
"Once the unit is ready to commence operations at the C&H location, ADEQ compliance staff members will again be present to monitor and observe the unit," Keogh wrote in the Dec. 18 letter. "Subsequently, ADEQ staff will remain available to observe the unit throughout the refined testing process as well as when the unit becomes operational."
Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said his group was aware of the testing at Sandy River Farm before Keogh's letter. He said his group maintains that the Department of Environmental Quality should not let the testing go forward in an environmentally sensitive area without more data on any emissions the technology produces.
"We found it just unacceptable that ADEQ is letting such an experimental process go forward," he said.
C&H Hog Farms sits on Big Creek, 6.8 miles from where the creek flows into the Buffalo National River. The farm is the first large-scale hog operation in the watershed -- the area that drains into the river. The farm, which opened in May 2013, is permitted to have 2,503 sows and 4,000 piglets.
In 2014, the Buffalo National River -- the nation's first national river -- had more than 1.3 million visitors, who spent about $56.5 million at area businesses, according to National Park Service data.
Plasma arc pyrolysis is one of two waste-disposal methods that C&H Hog Farms has proposed using to address concerns about hog waste polluting the watershed.
The other method would add liners to some waste lagoons and place a cover on another lagoon that would capture gas emissions, send them through a pipe and incinerate them. A proposed modification to the hog farm's state permit that would let the farm use this method of waste disposal is before the Department of Environmental Quality.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Services Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration released a final reassessment on the environmental impact of the farm, concluding that the farm likely would have "no significant impact" on the watershed.
Metro on 12/27/2015
Print Headline: Hog farm gets vaporizing system
When it comes to protecting the Buffalo National River from raw waste generated by that controversial hog factory at Mount Judea, it will be interesting to see if the U.S. Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration have yet again fallen short after their second draft attempt to produce a credible court-ordered Environmental Assessment. The agencies' original assessment, deemed unacceptable last year by U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall, led earlier this year to their offering an initial draft revision that drew 1,858 public comments. That reaction prompted them to request until March 2016 to complete this most recent draft. And somehow, they managed to complete and release it more than three months early and just before Christmas. How does one spell politically calculated? The environmental assessment is a required segment of the federal loan guarantees the factory received from both agencies before it began operating in 2012 with the blessings of our state's Department of Environmental Quality (waaaait for it ... cough). Yet again, as they had in their initially discredited draft and subsequent revision, the agencies in their final draft determined "no significant impact" to the watershed from the factory. In other words, all smells just great. Initiated and supplied for two years by Cargill Inc., the factory confines 6,500 swine and continually spreads their raw waste across fields near Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo flowing 6.8 miles downstream. The latest draft findings failed to include the two years of in-depth studies and voluntary contributions of UA Professor Emeritus John Van Brahana and his team. He's a nationally respected expert of geosciences and the type of fractured karst terrain that underlies the Buffalo watershed. A news account by reporter Emily Walkenhorst summarized the latest effort to justify support for the factory loan by saying the agencies cited current data and the restrictions placed on the factory's state permit to justify their draft conclusion. This final draft version cites material gathered during a five-year study by the state-funded Big Creek Research and Extension Team from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the National Park Service to argue there's no evidence of any impairment to the river or environment. Not surprisingly, Gordon Watkins, director of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said he was unimpressed with this latest attempt. As of last week, Watkins, Brahana and others involved in the federal lawsuit that originally contested the inadequate assessment in Marshall's courtroom were closely examining the contents. The early signals I was getting said they had a lot of problems. I'm sure I'll have lots more to say about that when they address specific matters within this latest draft. As Judge Marshall has rightly assessed, this matter is far too critical for our state and nation to settle for a "you'll do" when it comes to protecting the country's first national river. It's a rare asset that records show routinely draws over one million visitors and 55 million tourism and recreational dollars to an economically deprived Ozarks region each year. The hog factory employs nine and pays about $7,000 in property taxes, the news story also reads. In the latest story, I suppose I was most appalled that the state agency responsible for maintaining and ensuring environmental quality doesn't have numeric standards for nutrients in our streams and waters. "To date, ADEQ does not have sufficient data to assess for nutrient impairment on Big Creek or the Buffalo River," is how Ellen Carpenter, chief of the agency's water division, explained it. Suppose water-quality data assessment might be an ability that would serve our state well? The capacities necessary for the Department of Environmental Quality to be able to accurately assess the level of purity and contamination in our streams and lakes sounds reasonable enough to this layman. Anything less sounds like a hollow (perhaps politicized) excuse. Meanwhile, everyone who reveres this national river as much as we do has until Jan. 18 to send along even more than 1,858 comments, opinions or suggestions about this latest draft assessment to CHHogFarmcomments@cardnogs.com or C&H Hog Farm Comments, c/o Cardno, 501 Butler Farm Road, Suite H, Hampton, Va. 23666. The draft is available online at the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance website. I'm buying my stamps today. I'd suggest mentioning the credible work of Dr. John Van Brahana, who was the first on the scene to begin taking baseline measurements and has since been measuring water quality and subsurface water flow that transports rainfall from waste-laden spray fields through the many limestone openings that lead into Big Creek. Any report that purposefully ignores these relevant findings in my view can't possibly be credible. ------------v------------
When it comes to protecting the Buffalo National River from raw waste generated by that controversial hog factory at Mount Judea, it will be interesting to see if the U.S. Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration have yet again fallen short after their second draft attempt to produce a credible court-ordered Environmental Assessment.
The agencies' original assessment, deemed unacceptable last year by U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall, led earlier this year to their offering an initial draft revision that drew 1,858 public comments. That reaction prompted them to request until March 2016 to complete this most recent draft. And somehow, they managed to complete and release it more than three months early and just before Christmas. How does one spell politically calculated?
The environmental assessment is a required segment of the federal loan guarantees the factory received from both agencies before it began operating in 2012 with the blessings of our state's Department of Environmental Quality (waaaait for it ... cough).
Yet again, as they had in their initially discredited draft and subsequent revision, the agencies in their final draft determined "no significant impact" to the watershed from the factory. In other words, all smells just great.
Initiated and supplied for two years by Cargill Inc., the factory confines 6,500 swine and continually spreads their raw waste across fields near Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo flowing 6.8 miles downstream.
The latest draft findings failed to include the two years of in-depth studies and voluntary contributions of UA Professor Emeritus John Van Brahana and his team. He's a nationally respected expert of geosciences and the type of fractured karst terrain that underlies the Buffalo watershed.
A news account by reporter Emily Walkenhorst summarized the latest effort to justify support for the factory loan by saying the agencies cited current data and the restrictions placed on the factory's state permit to justify their draft conclusion.
This final draft version cites material gathered during a five-year study by the state-funded Big Creek Research and Extension Team from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the National Park Service to argue there's no evidence of any impairment to the river or environment.
Not surprisingly, Gordon Watkins, director of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said he was unimpressed with this latest attempt. As of last week, Watkins, Brahana and others involved in the federal lawsuit that originally contested the inadequate assessment in Marshall's courtroom were closely examining the contents. The early signals I was getting said they had a lot of problems. I'm sure I'll have lots more to say about that when they address specific matters within this latest draft.
As Judge Marshall has rightly assessed, this matter is far too critical for our state and nation to settle for a "you'll do" when it comes to protecting the country's first national river. It's a rare asset that records show routinely draws over one million visitors and 55 million tourism and recreational dollars to an economically deprived Ozarks region each year. The hog factory employs nine and pays about $7,000 in property taxes, the news story also reads.
In the latest story, I suppose I was most appalled that the state agency responsible for maintaining and ensuring environmental quality doesn't have numeric standards for nutrients in our streams and waters.
"To date, ADEQ does not have sufficient data to assess for nutrient impairment on Big Creek or the Buffalo River," is how Ellen Carpenter, chief of the agency's water division, explained it.
Suppose water-quality data assessment might be an ability that would serve our state well? The capacities necessary for the Department of Environmental Quality to be able to accurately assess the level of purity and contamination in our streams and lakes sounds reasonable enough to this layman. Anything less sounds like a hollow (perhaps politicized) excuse.
Meanwhile, everyone who reveres this national river as much as we do has until Jan. 18 to send along even more than 1,858 comments, opinions or suggestions about this latest draft assessment to CHHogFarmcomments@cardnogs.com or C&H Hog Farm Comments, c/o Cardno, 501 Butler Farm Road, Suite H, Hampton, Va. 23666. The draft is available online at the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance website.
I'm buying my stamps today. I'd suggest mentioning the credible work of Dr. John Van Brahana, who was the first on the scene to begin taking baseline measurements and has since been measuring water quality and subsurface water flow that transports rainfall from waste-laden spray fields through the many limestone openings that lead into Big Creek.
Any report that purposefully ignores these relevant findings in my view can't possibly be credible.
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