Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Bad news for river By Mike Masterson National Park Service scientists and UA geosciences professor emeritus John Van Brahana have collaborated on a revealing report that details reason for concern over increasing water contamination in the Buffalo National River watershed. The extensive report goes into detail about declining oxygen levels and rising bacterial contamination in the watershed since the hog factory at Mount Judea began spraying millions of gallons onto fields around Big Creek, a major tributary of the country's first national river flowing six miles downstream. I believe this report alone further proves the need for Gov. Asa Hutchinson to schedule a fact-finding conference involving every interested party from special interests to the state's environmental regulators to determine through facts and science what already is being discovered in our precious river's watershed as a result of this factory's wrongheaded location. Yes, I've heard the arguments about private-property rights, the right to farm (this isn't really a farm as we know them), the karst formations and caves that underlie this factory's spray field and the more than 5,000 gallons a day our state allows to leak from two massive waste lagoons. Created by Brahana and Chuck Bitting and Faron Usrey of the National Park Service, the report was presented to the Ozark Society. It lays out data they've collected and analyzed from streams, wells and springs, including Brahana's groundwater dye-testing of property around the factory. Their findings present an ominous picture of changing water quality in the fragile watershed during the two-plus years since the factory (supplied and supported by Cargill Inc. of Minnesota) brought in 6,500 swine and the mountain of potent, untreated waste they generate. The study begins by saying the national river was established by Congress in 1972 in order "to conserve and interpret the unique scenic and scientific features and to preserve as a free-flowing stream an important segment of the Buffalo River in Arkansas for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations." It notes that on Nov. 1, 2011, the state Department of Environmental Quality created a class of General Permits under control of the state's Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to allow confined animal feeding operations. I prefer to call them domestic edible animal factories. The agency received 87 comments from 13 individuals or businesses, mostly from agribusiness companies or those involved in factory farms, so the new permitting plan slipped through mostly unnoticed by the public. It was the science, as Brahana explained, that most interested me. Studies showed the dissolved oxygen concentrations in Big Creek reveals a daily pattern of high dissolved oxygen concentrations during daylight hours and low concentrations at night. During the day, algae in Big Creek generates oxygen, which is added to the water as it absorbs sunlight. At night this algae absorbs oxygen from the water, thus reducing oxygen available for fish and other aquatic life. This is a natural variation observed in most streams and rivers. However, if measurements show a stream falls lower than the critical dissolved oxygen level, it's said to be in an impaired state. The critical level determined in this part of the Ozarks is 6 parts per million. Big Creek fell below the level for 120 nighttime hours last summer. While not the first time low dissolved oxygen values have been observed in Big Creek, the findings indicate the Buffalo River valley already was approaching capacity to accommodate nutrients from all animal wastes, which causes algae to proliferate, even before the state permitted the factory. "Our sampling of wells, springs and streams in the valley during the summer of 2013 (before waste spreading) reinforce the idea that the natural system was already near saturation, one of many facts ADEQ failed to note when they issued the permit," said Brahana. He said the duration lower nighttime dissolved oxygen finding last summer "is consistent with an added burden of waste from 6,500 pigs. Local landowners along the creek noticed the algae was particularly luxuriant last summer after about six months of waste spreading on nearby fields." Concentrations of E. coli bacteria (from the guts of warm-blooded animals) in Big Creek and upstream and downstream from its confluence with the Buffalo also were disturbing. The report says prior to spreading in 2013, the "average" E. coli contribution from Big Creek increased in the Buffalo by more than 37 percent. "Values of E. coli from 2014 taken as grab samples (randomly) show a marked increase from 2013," Brahana said. "These observations are consistent and indicate Big Creek and its ecosystem are being stressed, not necessarily by the hog factory alone, but by total agricultural loading from this valley. This impaired water is flowing directly into the Buffalo National River," added Brahana, who said even more exacting water-quality studies remain under way. ------------v------------ Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Editorial on 02/10/2015
Note: See the PowerPoint presentation of this meeting linked on the BRWA Home Page.
Arkansas Times
* ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Becky Keogh will take over for an interim director who succeeded Teresa Marks. A former deputy director of the department, she recently has been regulatory and environment manager for BHP Billiton, the energy giant, in Houston. Hutchinson noted her experience as both a regulator and industry veteran.
Nutrient trading' for watersheds proposed in House bill By Emily Walkenhorst A bill in the Arkansas House of Representatives would enable organizations to trade nutrients they discharge into a watershed with another organization in exchange for money or some other service. Springdale Water Utilities Director Heath Ward, a supporter of the bill, said a wastewater utility that's having trouble meeting compliance standards, for instance, could send excess nutrients to another portion of a watershed that's well under permit limits. Or the entity struggling to meet compliance standards could spend money on another, cheaper method of reducing pollution instead of updating its facilities or equipment, proponents said. Such moves would be legal under House Bill 1067, as long as the organization stays below its maximum level of nutrients allowed under its permit. The bill has been sponsored by Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, and co-sponsored Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock. Skeptics of the bill have questioned how the trades would be tracked and measured to ensure compliance. Ward, who is chairman of the Arkansas Wastewater Managers Association -- which has been drafting the bill since July -- said trades would be done with the supervision of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's appellate body, the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission. How any arrangements would be made and measured would be up to the agreeing parties, Ward said. "Shutting down or curtailing wastewater alone is not going to fix a problem if nutrients are an issue," Ward said. He added, "When you have a bunch of people finger-pointing, they spend a bunch of money and end up going to court." Nutrient-trading programs already exist in some states to address specific bodies of water that have had pollution issues, including in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky -- with a focus on the Ohio River Basin -- and Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, with a focus on addressing the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. North Carolina has established the Neuse River Compliance Association, which is a nutrient-trading group designed to meet standards on nitrogen. The Neuse River has been noted for its pollution by environmentalists opposed to hog-farm waste-disposal methods in the eastern portion of the state that they say have contributed to the problem. Ward said no other state in Arkansas' region of the Environmental Protection Agency, which includes Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, has a nutrient-trading program. He said that nutrient trading would be done without the same crisis situation or pressure to comply that's existed in other states, although he acknowledges a rocky history between Northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma in regard to the Illinois River Watershed. Beaver Watershed Alliance officials are already considering ways to use the bill, if passed, to get utilities or other entities to agree to restore stream banks, the degradation of which Executive Director John Pennington said is the biggest contributor to sediment and phosphorous pollution in Beaver Lake. As the bill is now, Pennington said it was "innovative." Collins said the bill would allow partnerships that should be mutually beneficial as an alternative to creating regulations and "rather than a hammer being the only thing we have and a nail being the only thing we pound." "Maybe there's a win-win-win where there's less phosphorus in the watershed, where the regulated person is spending less money ... and the landowner is benefiting because of [lower pollution]," Collins said. At the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission meeting in January, commission members questioned elements of nutrient trading, including how trades would be monitored and measured to ensure that they were in compliance with allowed levels. "How in the world are you going to measure ... just look up at the sky and guess?" asked Joseph Bates, an appointee from the Arkansas Department of Health, where he is deputy state health officer and chief science officer. Allan Gates, representing Springdale Water Utilities at the meeting, told Bates that measuring would be "do-able" and that a person would likely be delegated to do it. Randy Young, executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, asked if the "advisory panel" mentioned in the bill would limit the pollution commission's authority. Ward said the advisory panel would help establish the trading program. Collins said the panel would give recommendations to the Environmental Quality Department and that the department would have final say. Ryan Benefield, interim director of the Environmental Quality Department, did not speak for or against the bill at the meeting and was not available for an interview Friday. Collins said the bill could go to the House public health committee as early as Thursday. Ward said the bill is an attempt to do something "new and different" to address an old issue between environmental groups and the utilities and businesses that they want to be cleaner. "Everybody's under pressure to clean up their act," Ward said. Metro on 02/09/2015 --
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060012454
Court backs EPA, greens in CAFO privacy lawsuit Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter Greenwire: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 A federal judge ruled for U.S. EPA yesterday in a lawsuit filed by agribusinesses angry about the agency providing information on large livestock farms to environmentalists. U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery for the District of Minnesota denied the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council's motion for summary judgment, saying they lacked standing because the information's release didn't cause "actual or imminent injury" to the livestock farm operators who had provided data to EPA under Clean Water Act permitting. "It's not only a win for environmental groups and EPA, but for open government," said Scott Edwards, co-director of the nonprofit Food and Water Justice. At issue was EPA's release in early 2013 of hundreds of pages of documents on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pew Charitable Trusts, which had requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act. These documents disclosed farmers' names, addresses and geographical coordinates, as well as information on pollution discharges (Greenwire, Feb. 21, 2013). After the farm groups complained, EPA asked the environmental nonprofits to return the materials so the agency could resend versions that had personal data redacted. Then EPA accidentally provided too much information a second time in May 2013 (Greenwire, May 3, 2013). FOIA safeguards personal or medical information that would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Environmental groups filed the request to know more about nutrient runoff from the farms. Manure from CAFOs can release excessive nitrogen and phosphorus, which feed algae blooms in waterways that smother aquatic life and contaminate municipal water supplies. "The real importance [of this case] is that the states and the federal government have not done a good job of regulating agriculture and CAFOs," Edwards said. Edwards' group, a part of Food and Water Watch, had intervened in the case on EPA's side with the Environmental Integrity Project and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. In her opinion, Montgomery added that the agriculture groups' argument failed to prove farmers were likely to be further victimized as a result of the information's release. Swine producer Rick Grommersch told the court that activists with the group Compassionate Action for Animals entered his property to take photographs of his farm, in a declaration submitted by the trade associations. But the incident on Grommersch's farm took place in 2006 -- years before EPA received the FOIA requests, Montgomery said. This underscores "the ease with which activist groups can identify the location of large farms," she wrote. The Farm Bureau and Pork Producers Council also presented an affidavit to the judge from Minnesota dairy farmer Patrick Lunemann, who alleged that his privacy had been violated. Environmental groups soundly disputed this claim when they discovered that Lunemann's name, his wife's name and their farm's address were available on his dairy's website and Facebook page. The agriculture and livestock groups submitted five other declarations in which CAFO operators claimed the information would make them "more likely to receive disturbing threats and potentially targeted criminal activity," as well as acts of terrorism like the introduction of diseases in the food supply. The CAFO document release sparked bipartisan outcry from Capitol Hill in 2013 as lawmakers called for investigations into the incident and introduced bills to block the agency from releasing such data (E&ENews PM, June 6, 2013). The story drove an even deeper wedge between EPA and the agriculture community, which has traditionally distrusted the agency. Michael Formica, chief environmental counsel for the National Pork Producers Council, said he is almost certain his group will appeal the "ludicrous" decision. Montgomery is "arguing that if someone's name appears in the phone book, it means you can get all sorts of other information on them and release it," Formica said. Furthermore, he said, the judge didn't mention whether EPA was required to protect the farmers from threats by handing the data to groups that could use it to invade private property. The fact that addresses were publicly available online does not nullify the responsibility to protect parties, he added. As far as the groups' standing to look out for their members, Formica points to the Supreme Court case Friends of the Earth Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc., in which a complaint from a single member of the environmental group was enough to justify Friends of the Earth's representation. "We're disappointed. It's very disappointing," Formica said. If an appeal is granted, the case will be considered in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, released a statement saying the decision should be concerning to farmers, ranchers and citizens in general. "This court seems to believe that the Internet age has eliminated the individual's interest in controlling the distribution of his or her personal information. We strongly disagree," Stallman said. The plaintiffs have 60 days to appeal the decision.
Groups sue EPA over animal confinement air pollution Donnelle Eller, deller@dmreg.com 7:55 p.m. CST January 28, 2015 - Evidence is mounting that large animal-confinement operations are polluting the air and hurting public health, according to two lawsuits filed Wednesday that could have broad ramifications for Iowa, the nation's largest pork producer. A coalition of eight groups seeks to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air emissions from large pig, cattle, dairy and other livestock facilities. The environmental and animal-welfare coalition is asking a federal judge to "compel the Environmental Protection Agency to finally act to address unchecked toxic air pollution from factory farms, a large and growing industry that's almost entirely escaped pollution regulations for decades," said Tarah Heinzen, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, a group leading the legal challenge. The coalition includes the Sierra Club, Humane Society of the United States, and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. But Iowa pork producers and a Iowa State University professor say there is no evidence that large animal confinements pose a hazard. In Iowa, the livestock industry, led by pig, poultry and cattle production, generated $14 billion in cash receipts in 2013, federal farm data shows. Heinzen said the EPA estimates the country has 20,000 livestock operations. Large dairy and swine operations emit 100,000 pounds of hydrogen sulfide annually, contributing to acid rain and regional haze, Heinzen's group says. "These facilities emit a large number of air pollutants, such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, fine particles and greenhouse gases, sometimes at levels that threaten nearby rural residents, factory farm workers and the animals themselves," she said. Each of the facilities "can contain thousands or even millions of animals, along with vast quantities of waste. To give you a sense of scale, factory farms produce more than 500 million tons of manure every year in the U.S.," more than three times the amount of waste humans produce, she said. Residents "who breathe ammonia suffer eye irritations and a variety of respiratory symptoms," Heinzen said. "Ammonia also reacts with other chemicals in the air and contributes to the formation of small particles that lodge deep in the lungs that cause heart attacks and premature death. "Studies have shown that air near factory farms sometimes exceed acceptable ... ammonia exposure levels," she said. But Daniel Andersen, an Iowa State University professor, said research is inconclusive about the confinements' public-health impact. Large animal-confinement operations use complex ventilation systems to prevent animals and workers from exposure to ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, said Andersen, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering professor. "By the time that air would make it to a neighbor, concentrations are very, very low. They're at levels we would naturally encounter in our daily lives," he said. "People have tried to study it, but it's been difficult to find a link." Rosie Partridge disagrees. She said she's often forced inside her home in the fall, her hair and clothes reeking from the smell of neighboring pig-confinement operations. Worse, she and her husband, D.G., struggle with headaches, nausea and breathing problems, the result, she says, of exposure to ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that comes from confinement operations housing 10,000 pigs within a mile of her rural Sac County home. She said the couple, both in their 70s, sometimes has to leave for days at a time while manure is applied to fields. "The smell is horrid," she said. Heinzen said the federal government has done too little to protect residents from air pollution emanating from large animal-confinement facilities. "The federal Clean Air Act mandates the EPA protect public health and the environment from air pollution, but the EPA has failed to live up to its promise in rural communities," she said. "In fact, the EPA has failed to use its Clean Air Act authority to address factory farm emissions for 45 years." The lawsuits the groups filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C., federal court are designed to force the EPA to act on petitions the Humane Society filed in 2009 and the Environmental Integrity Project filed in 2011 on animal-confinement emissions. The Humane Society's petition asks that the EPA determine that large animal confinements are a source of pollution and set performance standards. The Environmental Integrity Project asks the EPA to set health-based standards for ammonia. The groups' lawsuits Wednesday ask a federal court to push the EPA to take action within 90 days. An EPA spokeswoman said Wednesday the agency would review the litigation. The EPA says agriculture contributes 10 percent of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, while the energy needed to warm and cool homes, run businesses, and fuel for transportation accounts for 70 percent of harmful gases. Ron Birkenholz, a spokesman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said he disagrees with the coalition's charge that confinement facilities degrade the health of workers or nearby residents. "We believe the barns are safe, or we wouldn't continue building them," he said. The association, Birkenholz said, is funding research at universities such as Iowa State to improve operations, including odor reduction. Andersen said manure is injected into farmland to reduce the smell and help prevent it from moving into waterways. And even though millions of tons are generated annually, it's a fraction of the fertilizer that's needed to raise crops in Iowa and elsewhere in the nation, he said. Birkenholz said: "We're working to be a good neighbor in rural Iowa. Yes, at times, there may be odor. But the activists think it's a constant problem, but that's just not the case."
Publication:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette NW; Date:Jan 27, 2015; Section:Editorial; Page Number:7B
Good news for us? A judge rules
Mike Masterson Afederal judge in Washington state ruled earlier this month on a case that likely sets a national precedent for preserving the cleanliness of our own state’s natural waters and streams such as our treasured Buffalo National River. District Judge Thomas O. Rice of Spokane ruled that manure waste from an industrial dairy farm in that state posed an “imminent and substantial endangerment” to the environment and drinking water there. The judge determined he “could come to no other conclusion than that the dairy’s operations are contributing to the high levels of nitrate that are currently contaminating—and will continue to contaminate … the underlying groundwater,” an Associated Press story reads. “Any attempt to diminish the dairy’s contribution to the nitrate contamination is disingenuous, at best,” the judge wrote in granting a partial summary judgment. This finding matters a great deal legally, according to the story. For instance, an attorney for Public Justice said this marked the first time a federal court has ruled improperly managed manure to be a solid waste, rather than a beneficial farm product. It’s also the first time the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which specifically governs the disposal of solid and hazardous waste, was applied to farm-animal waste. More importantly to our state and others, the judge’s ruling now means similar contamination standards can be applied to natural waters and private wells across America should animal-waste generators be discovered polluting with their animal manure and waste.
Arkansas Democrat Gazette Editorial: Legislature should fund Buffalo River water study Legislature should fund Buffalo River water study Posted: January 26, 2015 at 1:32 a.m. In the debate over operation of a large hog farm near the Buffalo National River, supporters of the agricultural operation and those who fear its impact on the environment ought to be able to agree on one thing: Monitoring is the way to know. The history of C&H Hog Farms is filled with controversy -- over the information in its applications for permits, over the state's administrative granting of permits, and over the response of state leaders to the potential for damage to the river. The operation is allowed to house 2,500 sows and as many as 4,000 piglets. It's located in Mount Judea near Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from where it meets the Buffalo National River. The river, of course, is one of the Natural State's most beautiful and popular destinations for visitors. The National Park Service estimated its recent annual figures at more than 1 million visitors who spent about $46 million. State officials have said the operators of the first large-scale concentrated animal feeding operation for swine within the Buffalo watershed did everything they were supposed to do, so there's little that can be done about a legally operating facility. The permitting of the farm has sparked a move to ban further encroachment on the national river by such agricultural operations. Of particular concern is the potential environment impact of the abundance of waste hogs produce. Now comes word that the only state-sanctioned and state-funded study of water quality in the area around the hog farm is running out of money, and there's no plan in place to continue. The University of Arkansas study, led by Professor Andrew Sharpley, was designed as a five-year effort, but it only received funding for the first year. State lawmakers continue to weight whether to impose a permanent ban on medium and large hog farms in the river's watershed. It seems only reasonable to conclude the way to reach a conclusion is through water quality data. That takes research, and that takes money. How can state lawmakers legitimately evaluate what's happening in that watershed without an independent study? A year is simply not enough -- and results have so far been inconclusive. Arkansas cannot afford to get this wrong. The Buffalo River is too valuable. If it ends up polluted, it will take untold millions and a long, long time to overcome the damage to the river's reputation. Fund the study, lawmakers. It's money well spent. Commentary on 01/26/2015
An unnecessary bill Keep data open
Mike Masterson Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, may have good intentions in wanting to exempt academic research data as it’s being gathered by state universities from provisions of the state’s Freedom of Information Act. But his recently introduced House Bill 1080 is, in my opinion and that of many others, unnecessary and a truly bad proposal that makes me wonder where such an idea originated. Surely it can’t involve the fact that Rep. Douglas (elected in District 91 in 2013 without opposition) is a former president of the Benton County Farm Bureau, or serves on the House Agriculture Committee, or is in the leadership of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. No way he’d be carrying water for those special interests. Douglas explained the rationale behind his bill to veteran political reporter and observer Doug Thompson by saying he doesn’t believe disclosing snippets of data gathered while research is under way tells the people of Arkansas worthwhile information until the entire project is completed. However, the people can see the data after what could be years of research is completed. That argument leaves me scratching my noggin since it runs counter to this Ozark boy’s limited understanding of pure-dee common sense. It certainly wouldn’t affect the outcome of any research to reveal findings along the process. That’s especially valid if the study is examining a subject as potentially serious as the potential contamination of our Buffalo National River, or the Illinois River. We the public who pay for the public research (as we do for Douglas’ elected services) deserve to know what’s being discovered rather than waiting long periods to know when something as toxic as hog waste has possibly contaminated the river. Thompson reported that various topics of research by public universities and colleges are monumentally important to the people of Arkansas, including fluoridation of drinking water, as well as water quality in the Buffalo and Illinois rivers. Douglas said that taking a couple of days of data from a two-year research study is comparable to “watching two or three frames out of a two-hour movie. You can’t really tell anything from that.” But what relevant difference does it make whether Arkansans are following developments as they unfold? And why would Douglas, as a politically connected farmer by career, care enough to want to change a perfectly good law (among the best in the nation) unless it’s to manage the flow of any potentially negative and embarrassing results from being released to we the people? Surely there would be no concern with disclosing positive results along the way. Should the ongoing University of Arkansas water-quality studies hypothetically show that bacterial and chemical contamination from animal waste is occurring within the Buffalo National River and its environmentally sensitive, karst-riddled watershed, why should we the people need to wait years to learn that? Revealing such findings as they are shown to be occurring clearly would generate a public outcry even longer and louder than what already has arisen since our state wrongheadedly allowed a controversial Cargill-supplied hog factory into the fragile watershed. And therein lies what strikes me as one possible motive behind proposing this kind of misguided and unnecessary law. What politico, corporation or responsible party would want to face a barrage of negative headlines and the pressures from further revelations should a devastating waste spill occur within the watershed? Thompson reports research information withheld by the bill from the public until final conclusions are reached would include “manuscripts, preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific or academic papers, plans, or proposals for future research and pre-publication peer reviews, the papers, plans, or proposals for future research and pre-publication peer reviews.” Douglas did concede that his bill needs further refining and that you and I could still examine, under the law, the methodology and scope and subjects involved in such studies. The people of Arkansas just wouldn’t be able to know what’s being found along the way, not until those conducting the study at a state-owned college or university say their work is officially concluded, on their timetable. By the way, why wouldn’t the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (chuckle) be up in arms over this kind of bill that restricts public access to significant environmental information? I like what reader Joe Nix had to say about Douglas’ misguided bill now sitting in the House Education Committee: “So the state pays for research to determine impact, if any, of the hog farm on the Buffalo but public can’t see [ongoing] results … such legislation has far reaching implications for science in general.” Let’s hope, for all our sakes, that this troublesome bill languishes in the education committee until its justifiable demise. —–––––v–––––— Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Farms Can Be Held Liable For Pollution From Manure, U.S. Federal Court Rules
By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court has ruled for the first time that manure from livestock facilities can be regulated as solid waste, a decision hailed by environmentalists as opening the door to potential legal challenges against facilities across the country. A large dairy in Washington state, Cow Palace Dairy, polluted ground water by over applying manure to soil, ruled Judge Thomas Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on Wednesday. "The practices of this mega-dairy are no different than thousands of others across the country," said Jessica Culpepper, an attorney at Public Justice, one of the firms that represented the plaintiffs, a collection of public advocacy groups. The case is scheduled to go to trial in March to decide the extent of the contamination and the clean-up. This is the first time the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs the disposal of solid and hazardous waste, has been applied to animal waste from a farm. Industrial livestock operations produce hundreds of millions of tons of manure annually. The district court ruling, if upheld, could affect any large livestock facility that produces more manure than it can responsibly manage, including poultry, beef and hog farms, Culpepper said. An attorney for Cow Palace said on Friday that it plans to ask for an appeal. "There's a reason no court has ever done this. It's because the statute was not intended to apply to these situations," said Debora Kristensen, an attorney for Givens Pursley, a law firm that represented Cow Palace. Kristensen said Cow Palace has already entered into a voluntary agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces the act, to address water contamination concerns. Fertilizer is not considered waste under the act, but the district court found that Cow Palace was applying more manure to crops than needed. In one instance, the plaintiffs in the case said Cow Palace applied more than 7 million gallons (26 million liters) of manure to an already "sufficiently fertilized field." The district court said Cow Palace's excessive application transformed the waste, which is "an otherwise beneficial and useful product," into a discarded material. The court found that Cow Palace's management of its manure violated the "open dumping" provisions of law. Unlike other federal contamination laws, the act requires violators not only to stop polluting, but to clean up any damage it has caused. The case is Community Association For Restoration Of The Environment, Inc. et al v. Cow Palace, LLC et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, No. 13-CV-3016 (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)
UA hog study
Speaking of bacon, it's time to decide if our state will cough up a few hundred thousand more tax dollars so the University of Arkansas geosciences folks can continue monitoring that hog factory our state allowed into the precious Buffalo National River watershed back in 2012. Former Gov. Mike Beebe, under whose administration this factory with up to 6,500 wrongheadedly gained entry to the most environmentally sensitive region of our state, initially allocated $340,000 for the university to monitor possible hog-waste contamination in the watershed. That expenditure thus far has resulted in "inconclusive" results based on examining a fraction of the spray fields. Now the decision on whether a lot more money is needed to continue studying the millions of gallons of waste from the swine factory: If the location isn't critical, why spend so much money and energy to monitor the castoffs being regularly sprayed on watershed fields? Truth is, it matters a lot. The state created a terrible situation that now we are paying to police. What's wrong with this picture? And why is this Cargill-supplied factory being so coddled? Yes, the factory jumped through the state's hoops for a permit, but those upfront requirements clearly weren't close to stringent enough, as evidenced by the game of "pay money, watch and see" we're playing now. Denying a hog-factory permit in this location to begin with would have saved so much time, energy and taxpayer dollars. ------------v------------ Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Editorial on 01/20/2015
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