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Federal loan for Ark. hog farm violated NEPA, judge rules

Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, December 3, 2014

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration violated environmental laws by providing $3.6 million in federal loans to a sprawling hog farm in northwest Arkansas.

Judge D. Price Marshall in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas faulted the agencies for providing loans to C&H Hog Farms Inc., whose 6,500 swine are near a tributary of the Buffalo National River.

At issue is C&H's successful 2012 application for $3.6 million in loans from Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas. Farm Credit needed additional assurances and applied for loan guarantees from the Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency.

SBA guaranteed about 75 percent of a $2.3 million Farm Credit loan without assessing the farm's impact on the environment, Marshall said.

Although FSA reviewed documents from state environmental regulators and sought guidance from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the farm agency misstated or left out crucial information in its environmental impact statement. FSA backed 90 percent of a $1.3 million loan.

"We are hopeful that the court's decision will result in a more thorough consideration by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration of the effects this swine facility, and others like it, have on local communities as well as on national treasures like the Buffalo River," said a statement from Dane Schumacher, a board member of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.

The alliance was a plaintiff in the case with the Arkansas Canoe Club, National Parks Conservation Association and Ozark Society. The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance was represented by the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.

The plaintiffs said the agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and other laws by not carrying out a full environmental impact statement before issuing the loan guarantees. Large animal-feeding operations can potentially release manure in streams, adding nutrients to the water that promote the growth of harmful algae blooms.

The conservation groups filed suit in August 2013, before the farm opened. Justice Department attorney Barclay Samford said that the farm satisfied environmental assessment requirements under an animal feeding operation permit issued by the state of Arkansas. The permit requires the operators to conduct soil quality testing and respect a buffer zone between the farm and the waterway.

The state has the authority to determine the environmental assessment in this case, said Michael Formica, chief environmental counsel with the National Pork Producers Council, which was not involved in this case. In addition, the 6,500-head figure is misleading, as 4,000 of those are piglets who will not stay on the farm.

FSA declined to comment on the decision.

SBA is consulting with DOJ on whether to appeal, said Miguel Ayala, a spokesman for the agency

Politico

JUDGE: TWO USDA AGENCIES ILLEGALLY GUARANTEED LOANS: A U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas has ruled that two federal agencies, the USDA Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration, guaranteed loans to an industrial hog farm that potentially adversely impacted the environment surrounding the facility.

Court Finds Federal Agencies Ignored NEPA In Guaranteeing Loans For Hog Farm Above Buffalo National River
Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on December 3, 2014 - 2:09am
 
A federal judge has blocked loan guarantees for a commercial hog operation upstream of the Buffalo River until thorough environmental reviews are conducted./State of Arkansas
Federal loan guarantees needed to ensure financing for a commercial hog operation upstream of the Buffalo National River in Arkansas were inappropriately approved by federal agencies that failed to adequately review the project's potential environmental impacts, a judge has ruled.

While the ruling (attached below) handed down Tuesday by U.S. District Judge D. P. Marshall, Jr., won't shut down C&H Hog Farms, it does require the Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency to go to the farm and "take the hard look at C&H's environmental consequences that they should have in the beginning. And if that hard look requires the Agencies to put conditions on their guaranties, then it's likely that C&H will comply with those conditions. Otherwise, the farm will risk its relationship with the lender."

The ruling was hailed by a handful of environmental and conservation groups that fear wastes from the farm, which began operations in 2013 and now has roughly 6,500 pigs on the property that are thought to generate approximately 1.8 gallons of wastes annually, will escape from containment ponds and treatment facilities and contaminate the watershed that feeds into the Buffalo River, the nation's first national river.

“This is a big win, this is a really big win for us. What it means is basically what we’ve been saying all along, that those agencies didn’t follow the law when they guaranteed the loans," Hannah Chang, an attorney with Earthjustice, which represented the groups, said Tuesday evening in a phone call from New York.

It's possible, she said, that the hog operation wouldn't have received the funding it needed had the two agencies followed the National Environmental Policy Act and carefully evaluated the environmental risks, as they should have, before guaranteeing the $3.6 million in loans the farm obtained from Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas.

Judge Marshall said as much in his ruling, noting that "the legal premise of each guaranty was that C&H couldn't otherwise obtain financing on reasonable terms. C&H had to, and did, borrow $3.6 million to start this farm. These statutes, coupled with the necessity of the large loans, make it substantially unlikely that C&H would have come into being absent the guaranties. Without the guaranties, there would've been no loans. Without the loans, no farm."

The Buffalo River travels through the heart of the Ozark Mountains in northwestern Arkansas, and runs beneath magnificent cliffs that in places rise nearly 700 feet above the river's clear, quiet pools and rushing rapids. One hundred thirty-five miles of the Buffalo comprise the national river, which attracts more than one million visitors each year who float the crystal waters, camp on the gravel bars, and hike the trails – generating $38 million toward the local economy.

The C&H facility is located on the banks of Big Creek in Mount Judea, Arkansas. Under a contract with Cargill, Inc., an international agricultural and food conglomerate, C&H confines approximately 6,500 pigs at a time making the operation the first of its size and scale in the Buffalo River watershed. According to the plaintiffs in the case, the pigs' manure and the farm's wastewater is collected in open-air storage ponds on site and spread onto approximately 630 acres of land surrounding the farm and adjacent to the banks of Big Creek. These manure application fields are less than six miles upstream from Big Creek’s confluence with the Buffalo National River.

The hog farm is located in a region of karst geology, which is is composed of easily dissolved rocks, such as limestone and dolomite. Via sinkholes and underground caves in the geology, groundwater can flow miles very quickly. In the National Park System, karst geology is perhaps mostly visibly connected to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, but it can also be found along the Buffalo National River and at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri.

When the groups -- the Arkansas Canoe Club, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, National Parks Conservation Association, and The Ozark Society - brought their lawsuit last year, they argued that the loan guarantees to the hog facility hinged on a flawed environmental review process that violated the law and did not follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture's own regulations.

Judge Marshall agreed.

"The Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration have each interpreted the NEPA to cover its guaranty to C&H," he wrote in the 17-page ruling. "But neither Agency took the required hard look into C&H's environmental impact. While the legal analysis for each Agency is a bit different, the conclusion is the same: the federal Agencies arbitrarily and capriciously guaranteed C&H's loans."

The judge gave the agencies one year to conduct the requisite studies; until they are completed, they cannot guarantee the outstanding loans if the hog farm were to default on them.

"Injunctive relief is proper here. The Endangered Species Act provides for it," Judge Marshall wrote, noting the presence of the Gray Bat, an endangered species, in the area. "The Court has considered the relevant factors and finds that an injunction is the proper remedy for the National Environmental Policy Act violations, too. Plaintiffs have succeeded on the merits. Their interest in addressing C&H's effects on the environment will be irreparably harmed absent an injunction. On balance, the interest in getting the environmental assessment right outweighs any harm that enjoining the guaranties will cause the federal Agencies.

"And the public interest is best-served by ensuring that federal tax dollars aren't backing a farm that could be harming natural resources and endangered species."

Arkansas Times

Judge enjoins federal loan guarantees for Buffalo River watershed hog farm
Posted By Max Brantley on Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 5:16 PM
 

Federal Judge Price Marshall ruled today in Little Rock that two federal agencies hadn't done an adequate environmental assessment before guaranteeing $3.6 million in loans for a major hog feeding operation in Newton County near the Big Creek tributary to the Buffalo National River.

The judge enjoined the loan guarantees, meaning they are no longer in effect.

The judge said USDA Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration had acted arbitrarily in failing to consider impact on threatened and endangered species potentially affected by the operation. The C and H Hog Farm, which supplies pork to agriculture giant Cargill, has been feared as a potential polluter of the Buffalo River, particularly because of the porous limestone that underlies the region.

The immediate impact of the ruling isn't clear. Without a guaranteed loan, the lender to the hog farm might have concerns to address with the farm, but the farm has been operating without reported difficulties. The immediate impact of the ruling is that the agency's will have to conduct a new review within a year. This might produce new environmental requirements for the operation.

The environmental organization Earthjustice, which helped plaintiffs in the suit, issued a release:

“The Court saw the federal government agencies’ actions for what they wereundefineda disdain and complete disregard for the laws that protect our environment,” said Earthjustice attorney Hannah Chang. “We believe the Court’s decision will help to set things straight in this debacle that has put more than $3.6 million in federal taxpayer dollars on the line to support a massive swine factory farm upstream of a treasured national resource.”

Hank Bates, the Little Rock lawyer who represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he hadn't fully read it yet, but said, "This changes the landscape. Momentum is in the right direction."

The plaintiffs were the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Arkansas Canoe Club, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Ozark Society. Defendants were the federal agencies, not the hog farm. Comments provided by Earthjustice:

Buffalo River Watershed Alliance Board member Dane Schumacher: "We are hopeful that the court's decision will result in a more thorough consideration by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration of the effects this swine facility, and others like it, have on local communities as well as on national treasures like the Buffalo River."
Arkansas Canoe Club Board member Bob Allen: “It is not a question of if, but rather when and how much, pollutants from the hog factory, including excess nitrogen, phosphorous and bacteria, will make their way to the Buffalo National River. The Court’s decision today means that the federal government will actually have to consider the environmental impacts of the hog factory that it made possibleundefinedsomething the involved agencies should have done from the very start.”

Emily Jones, Senior Program Manager in NPCA’s Southeast Regional Office: This ruling is an important step forward for the protection of the Buffalo, America's first National River. The Buffalo River belongs to the nation and the American people for this and future generations to enjoy and its protection is the responsibility of the federal government. This ruling squarely calls into question the adequacy of the Farm Service Agency’s and Small Business Administration’s prior environmental review, and requires that both agencies undertake the procedures necessary to ensure adequate protections of this national treasure.”

Robert Cross, President of the Ozark Society: “We are extremely pleased by Judge Marshall’s decision. The flaunting of federal regulations by the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration in the loan guarantee process that allowed the construction of C & H Hog Farms was a severe blow to the people of Arkansas and the nation who believe in the protection of our unique and beautiful natural resources such as the Buffalo River. The decision can undo only some of the damage done, but it will hopefully serve as a message to others who consider similar egregious acts in the future."


Here's the judge's ruling, which he'd indicated would take this shape at an earlier hearing. The facts about laws ignored, seeping waste pits and potential for pollution are stark. The judge didn't accept the argument that the defendants had no role in potential damage. Without their guarantees, the farm couldn't have gotten loans to operate, the judge said.

The judge said the agencies could now take the "hard look" they should have taken at the beginning and perhaps set conditions. More review by the agencies likely will affect how the farm is operated, the judge said. He noted how flawed the environmental assessment had been undefined no mention of the Buffalo River, Big Creek, the nearby Mount Judea school or the endangered gray bat. There was no notice in the local newspaper. The size of the operation was unprecedented. It now has 6,500 hogs. The federal agencies merely figured that state review would cover the operation. We know, if the judge didn't say it, how little the state regulatory agency said and did.

In finding for most of the plaintiffs' claims undefined for example, he turned down one because he found the project wasn't on the Buffalo River and this didn't run afoul of its enabling act as a national river undefined he said it opened the door to attorney fees.

I've been unable to reach anyone at C and H for a reaction.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Plasmic arcs and pigs

Electrons on the river

By Mike Masterson
Posted: November 18, 2014 at 3:03 a.m.

OK now, let's see if I have this straight.

A Florida company called the Plasma Energy Group, formed in 2013, says it uses electrons to neutralize human waste with no harmful emissions. Its management wrote to the owners of C&H hog factory at Mount Judea to say its controversial large concentrated animal feeding operation could resolve all the factory's potential pollution problems in the fragile Buffalo National River watershed by using the group's revolutionary "plasma arc" method that's yet to prove it can properly and safely vaporize hog waste.

Now our state agency, that should never have permitted a hog factory to set up in this nationally treasured, karst-riddled region to begin with, insists it wants results from air tests preferably conducted offsite (and its potential effects on air quality) before it decides if and how to allow the vaporization process at the factory.

The Plasma Group, which applied for an air quality permit about three months ago, claims its machine can poof millions of gallons of hog waste in such a way that environmentally harmless emissions would be less than those spewed from a commercial lawn mower.

The hog factory's owner and operator tells a reporter this technology would be implemented hopefully to "pacify the environmentalists." Gordon Watkins, who as head of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance I count as among those dastardly "environmentalists," says he's not sold at all. In fact, he said such unproven technology when it comes to eliminating swine waste sounds to him like "putting lipstick on a pig" and calling it something else.

Does it strike anyone else that our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough) has nurtured, even lovingly shepherded, this Cargill-supported swine factory since the time it submitted its application to operate in the worst possible location our state can offer? Considering the feedback I continue to receive from across Arkansas, I see many who most assuredly see it just that way. And no, I'm certainly not speaking only of "environmentalists." I am speaking of those who over their lifetimes have experienced the remarkable majesty of this river and all it offers for our state and its people, not to mention those who come from other states to enjoy its national stature.

To state "the environmentalists" oppose this factory approved in such an inappropriate location is worse than misleading; it leaves the entirely wrong impression. What I hear repeatedly from across Arkansas is that people simply can't believe the ADEQ would ever have allowed such a travesty to occur. The next question they invariably raise is why would the state turn twisting backflips to quietly and rapidly accommodate one Newton County family's factory and Cargill (conveniently using a less restrictive General Permit) without consulting with, or even notifying, the National Park Service, Game and Fish, the state's health department and on and on?

And today, as a result of such negligence, our state's taxpayers are shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars so the state's university can monitor the potentially polluting effects of this state-approved factory's waste. All to benefit one hog factory supported by an enormous, privately owned multinational corporation. Huh?

Just imagine, there are some in Arkansas who think the secretive way this was done and these needless and expensive inner-state agency contortions actually make sense.

After two years of capping and recapping events, most readers know the bleak, frankly unbelievable, history of this mess that should never have happened.

Now comes this Florida company claiming it can solve everyone's concerns by vaporizing millions of gallons of waste from as many as 6,500 swine and limiting the darned near purified results on the factory's site. Today, swine waste is stored in two lagoons at the factory before being sprayed on fields underlain by cracked and leaky limestone around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo flowing just six miles downstream.

I'm not qualified to judge the potential success or failure of this super-duper, plasmagoric Buck Rogers technology that zaps pig waste into water without so much as a potentially harmful release. If it works as advertised I'll be the first to recommend sticking these machines on every swine, cattle and poultry factory across our nation. But why think small? Perhaps this gizmo could eliminate the need for mega-expensive community sewer systems altogether!

Meanwhile, the good people of Mount Judea continue to inhale airborne fumes from the manure being spread around their community and wait breathlessly for the possibility of relief. I'm just pleased to know the knowledgeable and objective expertise of emeritus geosciences professor John Van Branaha and his band of volunteers as well as the National Park Service (who still can't fathom how the state would do this to them) continue to measure and examine water quality and flow from beneath and around this factory.

As I've steadfastly maintained since 2012 when news of the swine factory finally leaked out much too late, the only true solution to ending this controversy that should never have ignited is to move the thing out of the Buffalo National River watershed. Cargill, Smithfield and others who deal in the swine market support plenty of their factories in locations actually suitable to that industry. I promise they can easily afford to do the right thing by our state.

Vaporized pig waste leaving some unease - Arkansas Democrat Gazette
 
Farm’s plan short on data, state says

By Emily Walkenhorst
This article was published November 16, 2014

A Mount Judea hog farm's new contract with a Florida company for an untested hog waste disposal method has environmentalists worried about the potential effect on the surrounding area, even as the farm and the company insist that the new method should ease fears of pollution.

Sometime early next year, Plasma Energy Group of Port Richey, Fla., will test a machine designed to vaporize hog waste on the C&H Hog Farms site, founder and Plasma Energy President Murry Vance said. If everything goes as planned, the technology will eliminate the need for the pools of hog waste currently at the facility, he said.

The farm sits on Big Creek about 6 miles from where the creek meets the Buffalo National River. Numerous studies are being conducted to determine the effect the hog farm has had on nearby waters since it first opened more than a year ago, but C&H and environmentalists have disagreed on what the results of the studies indicate.

The vaporizing method has not been approved or rejected by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which has informed the company that it doesn't have enough data -- given that the method has not been tested before on hog waste -- to determine whether the company will need an air-quality permit to proceed.

In an Oct. 7 email to Vance, the department recommended that the company test its method off-site and provide the agency with data once the testing begins.

"Please be aware that if you choose to proceed with the trial on the C&H premises, you do so strictly and entirely at your own risk and expense," Air Division Permit Branch Manager Thomas Rheaume wrote. "If it is later determined that an air permit is needed, your company could potentially be subject to an enforcement action. This response in no way authorizes operations that would otherwise require an air permit."

Because of the size of the machine to be used, Vance said he's not concerned about facing enforcement action. He said the emissions will be less than those of a commercial lawn mower.

"There's not going to be an issue with air, and they know that," Vance said.

He told the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission in October that he believed on-site testing was the best way to try out the technology.

The company sent C&H information about its technology after learning about the farm in the news. C&H co-owner Jason Henson then called the company and noted his interest.

Vance and Plasma Energy Group have been looking to expand into agriculture, and Henson and C&H have been looking for a way to address the criticism that the farm has incurred for nearly two years.

Plasma Energy Group submitted an air-permit application to the Environmental Quality Department on Sept. 18.

"It's more a call to appease the environmentalists than anything," Henson said.

But environmentalists, chiefly concerned that a large animal operation is located so close to the Buffalo National River, have gone to the Environmental Quality Department and its appellate body -- the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission -- to express their concern that the technology is "experimental" and risky.

"I liken it to putting lipstick on a pig, if you want to excuse the pun," said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.

The proposed technology is an attempt to correct something that never should have been there in the first place, he said.

"It's an unproven technology, and there's a lot more questions than answers," Watkins said.

While Vance has said the vaporizing method is a "closed-loop" system with no discharge, Watkins and others have been skeptical. Vance said the skepticism is a misreading of the company's proposal.

Plasma Energy Group has never previously attempted to vaporize hog waste, but Vance notes that the company has previously vaporized human waste and a combination of animal manure and bedding.

The company started in 2013, but Vance said he has been using plasma arc pyrolysis technology -- typically the conversion of material into synthetic gas -- since 1992. In the case of C&H, Vance said the waste won't be turned into synthetic gas because the quantity of material won't be large enough.

The method proposed for the C&H farm would break down the hog waste and vaporize it using electron discharge and some heat, then condenses the water vapor into "semi-pure" water that's put back in the plant, Vance said.

"It doesn't leave the property," he said.

C&H Hog Farms is a "large concentrated animal feeding operation" permitted to have about 2,000 full-grown sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at a time.

The farm, granted a permit from the Environmental Quality Department in 2012, has operated for about a year and a half while it and the agencies that granted its operational permits have been under fire from environmentalists who say the amount of animal waste generated at the facility could pose a threat to groundwater and the nearby river.

The Buffalo National River had more than 1 million visitors in 2013, who spent about $46 million, according to National Park Service data.

In 2013, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and other environmental organizations filed a lawsuit alleging that loans guaranteed to the hog farm were given after an improper environmental assessment on the impact of the farm that violated several federal laws.

U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. has determined that he will issue an injunction -- or a block -- on those loans, but the details of the injunction and a timeline for when federal agencies will be required to comply with federal law have yet to be determined.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Plaintiffs urge block of loans to C&H farm

By Emily Walkenhorst

November 8, 2014

Parties in the lawsuit over federal loan guarantees made to a Newton County hog farm in 2012 filed their recommendations this week for how an injunction against those loans should be administered.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. asked the parties to submit their recommendations within 21 days of his October ruling that the environmental assessment done during the loan process was "defective."
Marshall wrote Oct. 16 that the assessment was "too brief" and had "no chain of reasoning."
The lawsuit, filed in August 2013, contends that Farm Service Agency workers ignored several federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, when they conducted the assessment and issued a "finding of no significant impact" for C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, which include the Ozark Society, the Arkansas Canoe Club and the National Parks Conservation Association, urged the court this week to block the loans until the agencies are in compliance with the law, citing precedents in similar cases.
The attorneys also suggested deadlines for complying with federal law, including quarterly reports on the progress. They recommended a 12-month review process for the National Environmental Policy Act, preparation of an environmental impact statement, and a 30- to 90-day consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Endangered Species Act.
Attorneys for the defendants, which include several federal agencies, asked that the court not impose a deadline on the analyses and not specify how the agencies should conduct their reviews, such as requiring the impact statement.
"The interests of the public and of the environment are better served by allowing the Defendant Agencies to take the time needed to properly comply with both Acts, rather than creating a situation where the need to conduct a thorough analysis is overshadowed by the specter of failing to meet a judicially imposed deadline," the defendants' attorneys wrote.
New information could prompt additional analysis and public comment, delaying final decisions, the defendants' attorneys wrote. No evidence exists of an "appreciable risk of harm" to the plaintiff's interests during the time it will take for agencies to comply, they wrote.
Blocking the federal loan guarantees provides the plaintiffs with all the relief they sought in the injunction, the defendants' attorneys wrote.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that deadlines were allowable by law and cites similar cases in which timetables have been established for compliance.
They additionally argued that the court should require an environmental impact statement if the loan guarantees may significantly impact the environment, based on precedent.
C&H Hog Farms is a large-scale concentrated animal feeding operation. The farm, which is permitted to house approximately 2,000 full-grown sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at a time, is the first facility in the state to receive a general permit from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for the operation of a concentrated animal feeding operation and the management of liquid animal waste.
The farm and the various agencies responsible for granting its owners operational permits have drawn the ire of environmentalists who say the amount of animal waste generated at the facility could pose a threat to groundwater and the nearby Buffalo National River. The river is the nation's first national river and attracts more than 1 million visitors annually and generated more than $44 million in revenue in 2012, according to the National Park Service.
The lawsuit affects the loans the farm has received but does not directly challenge its operation.
Metro on 11/08/2014

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Colorful credit
The Buffalo in fall
By Mike Masterson

Did you see that an article published by USA Today lists our Buffalo National River as America's second most spectacular national park for autumn scenery? The magnificent Buffalo was rated only behind North Carolina and Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway.
Sure hope Cargill Inc. of Minnesota appreciated the story which said the Buffalo region offers "one of America's most scenic rivers ... lined with breathtaking oak and hickory trees."
Arkansans, and growing numbers across the nation, know multinational Cargill sponsors and supports the controversial large hog factory called C&H Hog Farms at Mount Judea. That factory regularly sprays raw hog waste from as many as 6,500 swine across pastures along or around the Big Creek tributary of the Buffalo, which flows six miles downstream.
I asked Gordon Watkins, who heads the always-active Buffalo Watershed Alliance, for his thoughts on the latest honor for the river, which became the first national river in 1972 thanks in largest measure to legislation by former 3rd District Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison.
Watkins said the newspaper's second-place national rating "is a feather in the cap of the Natural State and serves to reinforce the importance of the Buffalo not only to the Ozarks and Arkansas, but to the nation as a whole."
"It also points to the serious mistake made by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality when it allowed a 6,500-head swine CAFO to be placed where it poses a very real threat to that national jewel. Dr. Van Brahana's recent dye-trace studies have shown multiple direct underground pathways from the waste-application area to the Buffalo, so this is not a hypothetical, what-if contention.
"The risk is real. I'm sure if sections of the river were to be closed for human contact due to elevated E. coli levels, our second-place ranking would change. Maybe then we would rank high on the Top 10 list of 'Most Needlessly Damaged National Treasures.'
"Surely there are plenty more appropriate locations for such an industrial facility that would not threaten what is an economic engine for our poor corner of the state and a recreational attraction for people across the nation," he said.
To that I'd add: Surely.

National Hog Farmer

Arkansas Imposes Moratorium on Hog Farm Permits
Time allows review by Arkansas State Legislature on future animal feeding operations in Buffalo River Watershed

Oct 30, 2014

Source: The Baxter Bulletin, Mountain Home, AR
 

A moratorium on permits for hog farms in Arkansas gives that state’s legislature time to review future livestock operations. This is a second moratorium that has been issued on new permits for large or medium hog farms in the Buffalo River Watershed.

This moratorium may remain in force up to 180 days and it stems from a permit issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for the C&H Hog Farm near Mount Judea, AR. The moratorium was enacted to allow for the initiation and potential adoption of rule changes that would prohibit future medium- and large-confined animal operations, as well as concentrated animal feeding operations for swine.

According to Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton, of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (APCEC), the moratorium extends the previous one put in place on May 6. That moratorium was set to expire Oct. 22.

Moulton said the moratorium deals with reviews of APCEC regulations that deal with liquid animal waste and control systems, and animal feeding operations.

Jerry Masters, executive vice president of the Arkansas Pork Producers Association, says that Minnetonka, Minn.-based Cargill undefined which holds the contract on the C&H Hog Farm undefined had put its own moratorium on more facilities in the Buffalo River Watershed within the last six weeks.

The delay is to give the amendments to the regulation undefined intended to prevent future large-scale hog farms from opening in the watershed undefined time to go through review. The review would be done jointly by the Arkansas Legislature and House Agriculture and Health Committee, which currently is scheduled for Dec. 5. After that, the changes would go to the rules committee.

Masters says the C&H Hog Farm is well above permit standards, adding the Environmental Protection Agency has visited the site recently and found no violations.

Moulton says the joint committee meeting on the amendments takes place after the rules committee, set for the last meeting before the Legislature ends regular session for the year, and in order for the joint committee to review the rules before the end of the regular session, there would probably have to be a special meeting called of the state Legislature. After those two reviews, third parties would be asked for input.

C&H Hog Farm is situated about 6 miles from the Buffalo National River in Newton County. The farm was designed for a capacity of 2,500 sows and not more than 6,500 swine undefined a combination of sows and piglets  under roof at one time.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/experience/weekend/lifestyle/2014/10/29/10best-national-parks-in-fall/17995483/

10Best: National parks in fall

David and Kay Scott, 10Best.com 10:17 a.m. EDT October 29, 2014

America's national parks offer stunning autumn scenery from coast to coast.

 
1. Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina and Virginia. Changes in elevation produce beautiful colors.

2. Buffalo National River, Arkansas. One of America's most scenic rivers is lined with breathtaking oak and hickory trees.

3. Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio. Oak, hickory, maple and poplar trees fill this park with color.

4. Grand Teton, Wyoming. See the aspens and cottonwoods of this spectacular Western park.

5. Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Tennessee. Trees at various elevations show peak colors at different times.

6. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Dense forests become a painted wonderland with reds, golds and purples.

7. Mount Rainier, Washington. Bushes and shrubs in the park's sub-alpine region produce beautiful colors.

8. Rocky Mountains, Colorado. This rugged park's trees are striking.

9. Shenandoah, Virginia. See fall colors on the 105-mile-long Skyline Drive.

10. Zion, Utah. Zion Canyon becomes a ribbon of gold in autumn.