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http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/08/25/cargill-chief-credited-for-climate-remarks-urged-to-do-better-in-buffalo-river-watershed

Cargill chief credited for climate remarks; urged to do better in Buffalo River watershed

Posted By Max Brantley on Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 6:47 AM

Jack Stewart, vice president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, landed an op-ed in the daily newspaper in Minneapolis, base for Cargill, the agri giant behind a mass hog feeding operation in the Buffalo River watershed.

Stewart praises Cargill executive chair and former CEO Greg Page for joining other business execs manmade impact on changing weather patterns and damage to the environment. Then …. the Buffalo River.

Considering this impressive stance on climate change and environmental health, Page may be unaware that one part of the planet, the Arkansas Ozarks, desperately needs protecting from Cargill itself.

Stewart lists the well-known issues of geology and unique qualities of the Buffalo before concluding:

Mr. Page, we appreciate your good sense of environmental health. We and many others applaud you as one of the few corporate executives to raise a concerned voice over the perils of climate change. But thinking “globally” should also be accompanied by “acting locally.”

In light of your environmental sensitivities, please consider the risky business in the Buffalo River watershed. This is not something that can be mitigated; there is too much at stake. Please take positive actions in line with the values you’ve clearly expressed and move Cargill’s 6,500 pigs to another part of the state or country that will not threaten a national treasure.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/272370391.html

A Cargill pig operation in Arkansas is contradictory

Article by: JACK STEWART Updated: August 22, 2014 - 6:50 PM

The CEO speaks of the environment, but the feedlot threatens a national treasure.

It’s not every day in America that a major corporation steps forward and admits that climate change is actually occurring. Greg Page, Cargill’s executive chairman and former CEO, recently acknowledged that changing weather patterns are not only man-made, but are wreaking havoc on the environment. Page was part of a panel of influential business leaders that published a report titled “Risky Business” undefined the first comprehensive U.S.-based look at the economic consequences of climate change.

Page oversees an international conglomerate whose reach extends to almost every agricultural commodity imaginable. Minnetonka-headquartered Cargill provides, processes, trades, buys and sells everything from cotton to pork. Page’s support for curbing the impact of climate change is consistent with the company’s stated environmental policy. Under the “Corporate Responsibility” banner on its website, Cargill says the company is “committed to nourishing the world’s population while at the same time protecting the planet.”

Considering this impressive stance on climate change and environmental health, Page may be unaware that one part of the planet, the Arkansas Ozarks, desperately needs protecting from Cargill itself. Recently, a Cargill-sponsored factory hog farm began operations in an environmentally fragile ecosystem just upstream from America’s first national river, threatening the “crown jewel of the Ozarks.” For those unfamiliar with the Buffalo National River, a congressional act in 1972 was passed to protect and preserve the pristine, 115-mile, spring-fed, bluff-lined waterway for future generations of Americans. More than 1 million tourists undefined many from the Twin Cities area undefined swim, fish, camp and canoe the river each year.

Hog farms are not new to the Buffalo River watershed, but in the past they have all been mom-and-pop businesses. This new farm is a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) of 6,500 pigs. The resulting annual 2 million gallons of untreated feces and urine are first held in leaky, clay-lined lagoons before being spread over fields next to Big Creek undefined the second-largest tributary on the Buffalo undefined and directly across from a public school. The waste produced is equivalent to that of a city of 35,000 people, about the size of Brooklyn Center.

The factory farm’s location makes it perilous to our first national river. Not only is it just a few miles upstream from the Buffalo, but it also sits on top of porous limestone rock known as karst geology. Whatever is spread on the ground seeps through the rock and into the underground water system and eventually into the river. Recent tests by the National Park Service in the vicinity show that counts of E. coli bacteria are 30 times higher than in previous recordings. Even Arkansas’s chief environmental officer, Teresa Marks, acknowledged in a New York Times article in December that pollution is inevitable.

Mr. Page, we appreciate your good sense of environmental health. We and many others applaud you as one of the few corporate executives to raise a concerned voice over the perils of climate change. But thinking “globally” should also be accompanied by “acting locally.”

In light of your environmental sensitivities, please consider the risky business in the Buffalo River watershed. This is not something that can be mitigated; there is too much at stake. Please take positive actions in line with the values you’ve clearly expressed and move Cargill’s 6,500 pigs to another part of the state or country that will not threaten a national treasure.



Jack Stewart is a vice president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and a national board member of the Audubon Society.

 

Dr. John Van Brahana will be Honored at the Arkansas Wildlife Federation’s 2014
Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards Banquet
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Doors open @ 4:00 PM; Dinner served @ 6:00 PM
The Center of Bryant located at Bishop Park, 6401 Boone Road, Bryant, Arkansas


August 22, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For more than 50 years the Arkansas Wildlife Federation (AWF), Arkansas’ oldest non-profit conservation organization (1936), has been recognizing those who have gone the extra mile in conservation, helping to maintain Arkansas’ natural beauty and protecting the environment. Each year AWF holds the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards Banquet to honor the recipients who are nominated by the public and three awards chosen by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC).

Dr. John Van Brahana will be awarded the Harold Alexander Conservation Award and Mike Masterson will be awarded the Carol Griffee Conservation Communicator of the Year Award for their outstanding work in bringing the Buffalo National River to the attention of every Arkansan so that we do not forget the importance of this national treasure.

Other deserving winners include the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Lynne Slater, Executive Director of HAWK, Potlatch Corporation, Stan Speight, Waste Management, Kathy Rusert, Austin Klais, Nena Evans, and Cutter Morning Star High School EAST Lab. The AGFC awards are as follows: Hunter Education Instructor of the Year award to Mark Corbin, the Boating Education Instructor of the Year to Todd Gadberry and the Commission’s 2014 Wildlife Officer of the Year to Sgt. Brad Young.

This year’s theme will focus on the cooperative land rehabilitation project, located within Buffalo River watershed, known as Bearcat Hollow. Scheduled speakers include AWF’s President Wayne Shewmake and 1st Vice President Ellen McNulty; AGFC Commissioner Ron Duncan; Jim Dixon, Integrated Resources Team Leader (U. S. Forest Service); McRee Anderson, Fire Restoration Project Director (The Nature Conservancy); and Dennis Daniel, State Chapter President (National Wild Turkey Federation).

The doors open to the public at 4:00 PM to allow guests to see all of the winning art from the 2014 “Wildlife of Arkansas” Student Art Contest. After a four month tour to the various AGFC nature centers around the state, the art exhibit featuring 52 pieces representing grades k-12 will be on display for a one-night only gallery showing. The art show is a co-production of AWF and Creative Ideas. Attendees will also have the opportunity to visit with AWF affiliates such as the University of the Ozarks Outdoors club or the Arkansas Tech University Fisheries & Wildlife Society. Other affiliates and vendors will include Wounded Warriors Project, birds of prey, AGFC, and more.

There will also be a live and silent auction including vacation trips within Arkansas and to Costa Rica, and hunting and fishing trips in Africa, Argentina, and Arkansas. Auctioneer, Chris Workman of Workman’s Auction, will also auction off a youth deer hunt as well as a youth elk permit donated by the AGFC. There will also be several door prizes that range from shotguns to handmade blue bird houses and potted trees.

The public is invited to come join this family event and celebration to show appreciation for these conservation champions.

If you are a member of the press and would like to attend, or need more information, please contact the AWF Office. Photos from previous year’s event are available upon request. Information about the 2014 winners also available upon request.

Honoring Brahana
 
By Mike Masterson 

Its good to see the Arkansas Wildlife Federation rightfully honoring Dr. John Van Brahana at its annual Governor's Conservation Achievement Awards banquet tonight in Bryant.A retired University of Arkansas professor of geological sciences and one of the nation's foremost hydrologists, Brahana has spent the past year with equally dedicated student volunteers monitoring water quality around and below the controversial C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea.The professor has devoted his own sustained energies and finances to determine subsurface water flows beneath and around this Cargill-sponsored nightmare that our state wrongheadedly permitted to nurture up to 6,500 swine in the ultra-sensitive watershed of our country's first national river. The state hasn't offered even one cent to assist in his effort to monitor its blunder.

And for Brahana's deserving service, the Wildlife Federation tonight will present him with its highest overall annual honor, the Harold Alexander Conservationist of the Year Award.

Like the federation, I greatly admire and respect this unique man and all those who've joined him to do all they can to keep Arkansans aware of how waste from this factory is flowing underground into and around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo just six miles downstream.

I want the organization to realize how much I appreciate that they kindly chose to present me their Carol Griffee Conservation Communicator of the Year Award for multiple columns about this hog factory. Their honor means even more by my having known and admired the late Ms. Griffee, one of our state's finest, most enterprising reporters.

As I've said before, my craft, especially on the national level, has all but surrendered its once-proud role as the Fourth Estate, society's nonpartisan reporter of truths as the objective questioner of government solely in the public interest.

I'm certain Ms. Griffee, were she still among us, also would be shocked with this abdication of social responsibility under our First Amendment.

Yet again, I digress.

Meanwhile, my encouragement for Arkansans to express their opinions to Cargill about this hog factory apparently prompted many to respond by writing to the multinational corporation's communications director, Michael Martin.

Below are but a few edited examples that readers copied to me:

Ed Brocksmith--"The permit granted for the hog farm near the Buffalo National River was a mistake on the part of Arkansas regulators. Cargill has received a black eye because of this ill-advised decision by [the Department of Environmental Quality]. Further bad publicity is sure to come from this venture between Cargill and the farm in question. I urge Cargill to back away from this project before it's too late and a water quality disaster occurs on this beautiful stream."

Roland Robinson--"To say C&H followed all existing regulations only speaks to the sham the regulations are. Apparently, the director of ADEQ didn't even need to know the permit had been issued. ... To believe the operation of this CAFO will not result in dire consequences is to live in a fool's paradise. ... We're always assured all regulations are met, despite the fact that these kind of corporate operations fly in the face of common sense. Wanna make me a loyal Cargill supporter? Remove this CAFO."

RG Smith--"I used to think, as I drove by the Cargill facility in Springdale: Thank God we have businesses like this, supporting our economy, providing jobs; Cargill is just good folks. Now I think: Cargill, polluter of rivers, enemy of the environment, torturer of animals, indifferent to the public, supporter of corrupt politicians. Shame. Close that farm in Mount Judea, for God's sake, and for your good name."

Brian Thompson--"Regarding possible Cargill options, it seems that you can only choose to: 1. continue to back C&H, perhaps strengthening safeguards and spinning that as best you can, or 2. You can terminate the C&H contract for which I'm sure there are several possible approaches. Contract termination provides a tremendous opportunity for Cargill to do the right thing and harvest all sorts of public relations benefits. Continuing to back C&H would be a PR loser no matter how you manage it."

The Vorbachs--"Mr. Martin: The clock is ticking and every day means a greater problem for the Buffalo River. Please don't wait in your decision ... The reputations of Cargill ... and the state of Arkansas are at stake ... to have a hog farm in the proximity of a National River! What idiots would do a thing like that? ... Please do the correct thing and remove that horrible threat to the environment and to future generations who may never experience the enjoyment of beauty and purity in the Buffalo River. If there has been a significant change to the water quality already, I hope Cargill is prepared to spend the dollars to repair the problems! Common sense and integrity is the only way agriculture can coexist with 'other land usage' in NW Arkansas. Greed and disregard for citizens and the things they hold dear are defined in the name 'Cargill' at this moment. Perhaps your reputation can be saved."

Maxine--"Sir, Some things are more important than money. The Buffalo National River is one."

Share your own opinion at michael_martin@cargill.com.

------------v------------

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

Editorial on 08/23/2014

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/08/20/cargill-holding-firm-on-hog-farm-in-buffalo-river-watershed

Cargill holding firm on hog farm in Buffalo River watershed
Posted By Max Brantley on Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 6:57 PM
 
Dr. Joe Nix of Arkadelphia, a respected water chemist, is sending to friends and associates a letter he received, dated today, from the president of Cargill Pork about the hog feeding operation it is supporting at C and H Farm at Mount Judea in the Buffalo River watershed.

Those who've hoped for a solution undefined maybe even a retreat from giant Cargill undefined will be disappointed by the letter Nix shared.

Cargill said it would continue to support the farm, which it describes as a model operation. It said it would pursue other environmental safeguards on the farm. It said Cargill had established a moratorium on hog operation expansion in the Buffalo watershed (no mention of other parts of the stye and no mention of how long the moratorium might last undefined a couple of weeks?). It pledged to work for further safeguards, but acknowledged a solution that "satisfies all is probably unrealistic."

Indeed.

Nix said in a note accompanying the letter:

About 6 weeks ago, I had a call from Mike Luker who is president of pork production for Cargill. Apparently, the purpose of the call was to establish contact with me. I have no id who suggested this.

He told me, as he had told others, that they had made a mistake in locating this operation at the Mt. Judea site and that he was charged with finding a solution for the problem. He told me that he would be back in touch with me as soon as they had decided on a course of action. I heard nothing from him even though I called him five times and left call-back messages. No response, so I wrote another Cargill official and complained that I had not heard from Mr. Luker. I got a one sentence reply essentially thanking me for my interest in the project. I replied to this person by saying that I wanted specific answers and I was curious why I had not head from Mr. Luker. I then received another letter from this person indicating that I would hear from Mr. Luker very soon. That answer came a couple of hours ago. You will find it as the very small PDF attachment to Mr. Luker's note. It pretty well states Cargill's position on the project. I urge you to read it carefully! Please send it to others. Then sit back and know how it feels for your state and some of its most valuable resources to be screwed by big business. I best stop here before I get all worked up. Please, Please pass it on to others.

Cargill's letter above was accompanied by this terse note from Luker to Nix:

Dear Joe,

I’d like to personally thank you for sharing your views with me on our contract hog farm in the Buffalo River watershed. Please find attached Cargill’s plan for moving forward.


Sincerely,

Mike Luker,
President
Cargill Pork

The legal challenge to the operation will, of course, continue.

Minnesota Public Radio

Twin Cities environmentalists join fight over Cargill's Arkansas hog operations

Environment Elizabeth Dunbar · St. Paul, Minn. · Aug 15, 2014

 
Minnesota-based Cargill has been taking heat from conservationists, including some in Minnesota, for one of its contract hog farms in Arkansas.

Some of the anger over the facility comes from the fact that it's located on a tributary just six miles from the Buffalo River, an area they gets special protection from the National Park Service, much like the St. Croix on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

Jack Stewart says the Buffalo River, with its clear water surrounded by spectacular cliffs, is the Arkansas version of the Boundary Waters.

"It's our treasure," he said. "It belongs to all the people of the country."

Stewart, vice president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance in Arkansas, has rallied other activists concerned that manure runoff from Cargill-owned hogs could foul the river. They've gotten Minnesotans to join their campaign and send letters to Cargill, asking the commodities giant to relocate the operation.

Stewart, who was in the Twin Cities recently to encourage action, says people here should care about where a Minnesota company is operating.

"There are plenty of other places in Arkansas which would probably welcome the facility," Stewart said. "You know the people of Mt. Judea, about all they have, really, is an abundance of clean water and beautiful scenery. We don't think that, since it's a national river, that Arkansans should have to fight this battle alone. We need to band together when our national treasures are threatened."

The message has resonated with members of Minnesota's chapter of the National Audubon Society. About 840 Minnesotans have sent letters to Cargill, said chapter director Matthew Anderson.

"We've got an agricultural heritage as a state so we understand things like runoff and pollution and the impact it can have, and we know that we can do better," he said. "We value the companies that we have the most pride in, like Cargill, and we want them to continue to live up to the pride we invest in them."

So far, Cargill officials say they have no plans to move. The farm is owned by three local families, and Cargill owns the animals, said spokesman Mike Martin.

"The farm families have done nothing wrong," he said. "The concern is about a what-if scenario that may never take place, and the engineering on this farm goes well beyond anything that's required for environmental safeguards either by the federal government or the state of Arkansas."

Martin says Cargill is listening to the concerns and has reached out to opponents to see if there's a way to add more safeguards at the farm to quell their fears.

The controversy has been big news in Arkansas, not just because the farm is near a nationally-designated river. It's also the first hog farm in the state to require a new permit Arkansas officials adopted for large feedlots known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit.

After the farm began operating, opponents pushed policy makers to prevent more feedlots of its size from being constructed within the Buffalo River watershed, said Ryan McGeeney, who covers northwest Arkansas for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

There's now a moratorium, and the governor appointed a study group to monitor water quality, but McGeeny says state officials aren't talking about moving the existing farm.

"There's no one in official capacity saying that that's likely to happen or that that is even being considered."

At the center of the controversy is the geology in the region the hog farm calls home. It's karst, which is characterized by features like sinkholes and places where water can seep quickly through porous limestone. If that water is polluted, it can impact groundwater and surface water more easily than other places.

That's an issue that should be familiar to Minnesotans, because karst also covers much of southeastern Minnesota, where hog and dairy farms are common. Back in 2000, local opponents of a proposed large dairy farm in Fillmore County challenged the project, and it was built elsewhere.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the farm is the first in Arkansas to require a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit for large feedlots but is not the largest hog farm of its kind in the state.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/08/14/cargill-arkansas-farm-operations

Twin Cities environmentalists join fight over Cargill's Arkansas hog operations

Elizabeth Dunbar Elizabeth Dunbar · St. Paul, Minn. · Aug 15, 2014

 
Minnesota-based Cargill has been taking heat from conservationists, including some in Minnesota, for one of its contract hog farms in Arkansas.

Some of the anger over the facility comes from the fact that it's located on a tributary just six miles from the Buffalo River, an area they gets special protection from the National Park Service, much like the St. Croix on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

Jack Stewart says the Buffalo River, with its clear water surrounded by spectacular cliffs, is the Arkansas version of the Boundary Waters.

"It's our treasure," he said. "It belongs to all the people of the country."

Stewart, vice president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance in Arkansas, has rallied other activists concerned that manure runoff from Cargill-owned hogs could foul the river. They've gotten Minnesotans to join their campaign and send letters to Cargill, asking the commodities giant to relocate the operation.

Stewart, who was in the Twin Cities recently to encourage action, says people here should care about where a Minnesota company is operating.


Jason Henson, president and co-owner of C&H Hog Farms in Mt. Judea, addresses members of the press Monday during a tour of the farming facility on May 6, 2013. Ryan McGeeney/NWA Media
"There are plenty of other places in Arkansas which would probably welcome the facility," Stewart said. "You know the people of Mt. Judea, about all they have, really, is an abundance of clean water and beautiful scenery. We don't think that, since it's a national river, that Arkansans should have to fight this battle alone. We need to band together when our national treasures are threatened."

The message has resonated with members of Minnesota's chapter of the National Audubon Society. About 840 Minnesotans have sent letters to Cargill, said chapter director Matthew Anderson.

"We've got an agricultural heritage as a state so we understand things like runoff and pollution and the impact it can have, and we know that we can do better," he said. "We value the companies that we have the most pride in, like Cargill, and we want them to continue to live up to the pride we invest in them."

So far, Cargill officials say they have no plans to move. The farm is owned by three local families, and Cargill owns the animals, said spokesman Mike Martin.

"The farm families have done nothing wrong," he said. "The concern is about a what-if scenario that may never take place, and the engineering on this farm goes well beyond anything that's required for environmental safeguards either by the federal government or the state of Arkansas."

Martin says Cargill is listening to the concerns and has reached out to opponents to see if there's a way to add more safeguards at the farm to quell their fears.


C&H Hog Farms, the controversial large-scale swine concentrated animal feeding operation, seen in the foreground on June 3, 2014, sits less than a mile from the Mt. Judea School District, shown at top. Ryan McGeeney/NWA Media
The controversy has been big news in Arkansas, not just because the farm is near a nationally-designated river. It's also the first hog farm in the state to require a new permit Arkansas officials adopted for large feedlots known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit.

After the farm began operating, opponents pushed policy makers to prevent more feedlots of its size from being constructed within the Buffalo River watershed, said Ryan McGeeney, who covers northwest Arkansas for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

There's now a moratorium, and the governor appointed a study group to monitor water quality, but McGeeny says state officials aren't talking about moving the existing farm.

"There's no one in official capacity saying that that's likely to happen or that that is even being considered."

At the center of the controversy is the geology in the region the hog farm calls home. It's karst, which is characterized by features like sinkholes and places where water can seep quickly through porous limestone. If that water is polluted, it can impact groundwater and surface water more easily than other places.

That's an issue that should be familiar to Minnesotans, because karst also covers much of southeastern Minnesota, where hog and dairy farms are common. Back in 2000, local opponents of a proposed large dairy farm in Fillmore County challenged the project, and it was built elsewhere.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the farm is the first in Arkansas to require a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit for large feedlots but is not the largest hog farm of its kind in the state.

Tale of two letters

On the Buffalo

Mike Masterson (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tue, Aug 12, 2014)


For valued readers who mistakenly believe all public reactions to my columns about the state’s unbelievable decision to permit a hog factory in the Buffalo National River watershed are roses and light, I invite you to meet the e-mailer named “Salty Dog.”
The dog showed up the other day obviously to lead me back on the proper path in my intractable zeal in advocating for the purity of our precious stream.
“You can write all you want,” Salty admonished. “But like the people have explained to you, your hardheadedness is not going to change the fact the permit was issued and the farm is in operation, like it or not … It’s time to move on to other news and use my dime for something more profitable!!
“Get something else straight, that is not your river,” the canine of brine continued. “You did not create it or have anything to do with the location and maybe there is a better use for it!! Thanks for getting out of the rut you are in.”
Ouchy! Salty verbiage. But now you can appreciate the functioning level of those who argue for me to leave well enough alone whenever our state bureaucrats issue dictates.
While I’m on letters, Duane Woltjen, a high-functioning board member of the state’s respected Ozark Society, wrote one of his own to Cargill’s guru of public relations, basically pleading with the multinational, multibillion-dollar corporation to remove this factory it sponsors at Mount Judea from the precious Buffalo watershed as soon as possible and clean up the millions of gallons of waste that remain in its two lagoons.
He tells Mike Martin he’d waited until some “irrefutable facts are on the table concerning the presence of the C&H hog concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) on Big Creek.”
Woltjen, also a board member of the Ozark Regional Land Trust and co-founder of Fayetteville’s Natural Heritage Association, said he’s examined the 264 pages of the original application asking our state’s Department of Environmental Quality (cough) to place the factory in this wrongheaded location. He’s also studied geological maps where Woltjen says, “the fact this [factory] is built and spreading manure on karst directly connected to the Buffalo River is clearly revealed. Karst (fractured limestone) conditions here have been known for many decades.”
He tells Martin that respected hydrologist and karst expert Dr. Van Brahana and his team of volunteers recently proved what a state-sponsored research team from the University of Arkansas still hasn’t, and without using ground-penetrating radar, test wells, USGA gauging stations, runoff weirs, etc. Brahana has shown how groundwater flows “from the Big Creek’s main stem basin over three miles under the surface hills and terrain to appear in the Left Fork. I don’t need any more proof of the fact that nutrients spread on the former end up in the latter and will unavoidably eventually appear in the Buffalo.”
“I read the engineering design as reported in the ADEQ application and was amazed to see ADEQ approved holding ponds that by design can leak as much as 5,000 gallons per day per acre of pond,” his letter continued. “Now, in view of Dr. Brahana’s dye-test mentioned above, I leave it to you to analyze where that leakage will go. A little calculation reveals 5,000 gallons a day from these ponds will lower the fluid level in the pond just a little less than 3/16 of an inch.” C&H is required to report leakage, which they have no realistic way to detect, he adds.
Woltjen then tells Martin that C&H’s management of the nutrient application (sprayed hog manure) is based on phosphorus levels found in the uppermost four inches of soil, and grasses won’t always absorb all the phosphorous, leaving the pollutant to seep into groundwater.
“It is not rocket science to see that the application of these nutrients in the slightest excess of plant absorption is the culprit in the nutrient-poisoned wells of American farmland, and likewise it is obvious who is most culpable,” he writes.
Woltjen sharpens his point, saying Cargill and the family that runs C&H supposedly successfully jumped through all the state and federal administrative and regulatory hoops in creating this factory in this worst possible location to nurture up to 6,500 swine. However, not all the crucial hoops were raised in that process, he says, which “will be proven in court.”
He concedes that everyone involved has a right to make a living. “Unfortunately, the handling of manure for virtually all CAFOs has contaminated rivers, lakes and groundwater wherever it has been tried. No person or corporation had a right to do that … .
“Cargill has a unique opportunity here to become a corporate hero instead of a corporate villain,” Woltjen tells Martin. “Please remove C&H from the Buffalo National River watershed?”
If you ask me (ol’ Salty Dog probably is gagging at this point), it’s only a matter of time before contamination tracked to hog waste winds up in the country’s first national river and yet again, the many thousands who value this treasure will be asking why Cargill didn’t act back when knowledgeable people were pleading with it to do the right thing.
 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email
him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read
his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Ecologist steps up Big Creek study
Focus on water quality near hog farm
RYAN MCGEENEY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE



As Faron Usrey wades into the Buffalo National River at its confluence with Big Creek, armed with a small, plastic sample jar and a tiny sealable bag, he knows he’s not going to be able to capture everything he’s looking for.

Usrey, an aquatic ecologist with the Buffalo National River, has been collecting data in this way for more than 18 years. He employs a number of tools undefined some designed to help calculate the volume of water flowing through a stream, and others that detect dissolved oxygen, electrolytes and other components.

Much of the job comes down to getting waist-deep in the river, which in itself can sometimes be a limiting factor.

“Most of the spring, I haven’t been able to get a discharge measurement here [at Big Creek], because it’s above my waist undefined it’s unsafe,” Usrey said. “If we can’t get it by wading, we don’t get it at all.”

But establishing a thorough characterization of river conditions near Big Creek has become a focus point, not only for Usrey, but for park administrators and much of the state’s scientific environmental community at large.

In 2012, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued an operational permit to C&H Hog Farms, a large-scale, concentrated animal-feeding operation near Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from its confluence with the Buffalo National River.

In 2013, as public concern over the possibility of high concentrations of nutrients and bacteria associated with hog manure ending up in the river grew, Gov. Mike Beebe commissioned a research team from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture to establish soil- and water-quality monitoring stations in the surrounding area.

While UA’s Big Creek Research Team has focused on the creek and the land immediately surrounding C&H Hog Farms, Usrey has been focused on changes in the Buffalo National River itself, beginning with its confluence with Big Creek and continuing downstream.

Although national park staff members have gathered data on certain water-quality characteristics for more than 30 years, refocused efforts on establishing “base line” data for levels of dissolved oxygen and E. coli in the river downstream from Big Creek didn’t begin until March 2013. Dissolved oxygen is necessary for supporting fish and smaller aquatic life, and can be suppressed when large amounts of phosphorus enter a water body. E. coli is a bacteria commonly associated with animal waste.

“Dissolved oxygen seems to be driving everything,” Usrey said. He said dissolved oxygen is typically a good indicator of the overall levels of nutrients and other components in a water body. If the dissolved oxygen drops below 5 parts per million for more than eight consecutive hours in a section of river, it can drive changes in fish and invertebrates, he said.

“If it does that long enough, it kills things, or the fish just leave,” Usrey said.

During the annual conference of the Arkansas Water Resources Center in July, Usrey said there had not been enough time to capture a true “pre-farm” characterization of the river before operators began spreading hog manure on area grasslands. Usrey said that ideally, researchers would have two to three years worth of data before the farm went into operation.

Data from Usrey and the Big Creek Research Team have shown repeated spikes in E. coli in confluence waters after big rains, and dissolved oxygen levels have occasionally dipped, although the river has maintained healthy levels overall.

In May 2013, Usrey produced an assessment of E. coli in the Buffalo National River from 2009-12 for the National Park Service. In the report’s abstract, Usrey wrote that although the vast majority of the 456 samples collected during the fouryear reporting period were well below established limits for E. coli, tributaries to the river “posed a higher risk for contracting water-borne illness during recreational activities.”

Usrey said his concerns regarding the effect of C&H Hog Farms on the river aren’t centered on an imagined catastrophic accident, but on the gradual accumulation of pollutants in Big Creek that will then elevate the level of

E. coli in the Buffalo National River every time there is a big rain.

Usrey said he hopes to expand the park’s water monitoring and analysis capabilities to match those of the U.S. Geologic Survey, which currently maintains five monitoring stations along the Buffalo National River. He said that would give a more complete portrait of the river’s health without relying on individuals’ abilities to wade into the river to collect flow samples.

Usrey also said he would like to establish a certified laboratory that would meet U.S. Geologic Survey standards for quality assurance. “That way, if we go to court, the data would stand on its own,” Usrey said.

Environmental Quality Department spokesman Katherine Benenati said the park already shares its data with the Environmental Quality Department, as required under Regulation 2, the rule that governs the administration of the federal Clean Water Act in Arkansas.

Usrey said the park has been steadily working to hire additional staff members to conduct water quality monitoring, but repeated budget cuts to the National Park System have slowed the process. Caven Clark, chief of resources and education at the Buffalo National River, said the park has one new fulltime researcher who will join Usrey’s office in September.

Reed Green, a biologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey in Little Rock, is developing a “work plan” for the long-term measurement of dissolved oxygen throughout the Buffalo National River. After an internal review and approval process, Green said he expects to deliver the document to Usrey by Oct. 1.

Of the 20 tributaries to the Buffalo National River that Usrey regularly surveys, three are currently on the Environmental Quality Department’s list of impaired streams. Two of the streams

undefined Bear Creek, near Gilbert, and Big Creek Lower, which is in the Lower Buffalo Wilderness and is not connected to the Big Creek flowing near Mount Judea undefined are considered impaired because of low levels of dissolved oxygen.

Big Creek Lower “has got a big wilderness component to it, so it’s a big mystery, we want to look into it,” Usrey said. “That’s what the dissolved oxygen program with USGS is going to help us do, is understand how various land uses affect dissolved oxygen.”

“That’s why we’re trying to get into dissolved oxygen in a really quality way,” Usrey said. “We’re going to have to visit all of our tributaries. We have to also figure out, what’s natural ?”



Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN McGEENEY Faron Usrey, an aquatic ecologist with the Buffalo National River, collects water quality samples from the river at its confluence with Big Creek, a major tributary to the river. Although park staff have collected water quality data for more than 30 years, efforts to monitor levels of dissolved oxygen and E. coli in the river intensified after a large-scale concentrated animal feeding operation was built in nearby Mount Judea.

On the Buffalo
Candidates speak
 
By Mike Masterson
 
You may find it as unsurprising as I do to learn what both gubernatorial candidates have to say (and not) about our state wrongheadedly permitting that controversial hog factory at Mount Judea in our state's precious Buffalo National River watershed.

GOP candidate Asa Hutchinson and the Democrats' Mike Ross believe the Department of Environmental Quality (cough) properly issued this permit, which enabled this manure-laden factory of up to 6,500 swine to set up shop six miles upstream from the river. They also say the factory owners and their sponsor (multinational food giant Cargill Inc.) jumped through all the hoops necessary to acquire the permit.

Apparently there's nothing either candidate could, or would, do to either close or move this potential polluter should he become the person in charge of what has become the politicized agency responsible for protecting our natural environment. Too late, they say.

It doesn't matter that the sufficiency of the state's entire process to approve this factory has repeatedly been called into question. This includes the department's own director, Teresa Marks, conceding that she didn't know her agency had issued the permit until after the fact. Neither did staff at the local office in Jasper. That's still jaw-dropping unbelievable each time I write it.

Those who've followed the travesty don't need me to repeat the long list of genuine concerns here. The bottom line is that water and pollution always flow downhill. In this case, C&H Hog Farms regularly sprays endless gallons of raw hog waste onto fields around Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo, and atop a fractured karst subsurface that rapidly transports whatever is applied to it.

Back to what the gubernatorial candidates have to say about what they'd do should they become the person who appoints the Environmental Quality director and is therefore ultimately accountable for that that agency does and fails to do.

Here's what Hutchinson told me: "The Buffalo National River must be protected and I will take any necessary steps to protect its water quality and environmental health. In the case of the farmer in Newton County, the farmer has done nothing wrong and has complied with all the permitting requirements of the state.

"I support continued monitoring of the watershed and also more effective notification requirements on future applications to assure that all interested parties are notified and have adequate opportunity to express any concerns. I grew up drinking fresh water from the Spavinaw Creek on our farm, so I am committed to protecting the quality of our water sources and the Buffalo River in particular. Many Arkansans depend on the tourism generated by our state's natural beauty and the Buffalo River is a major part of that economic engine."

Ross sent a statement saying he, too, opposes additional hog farms in or near the Buffalo River watershed. "But this farmer followed the rules that exist now and did everything right." Congressman Hutchinson has said he opposes putting a hog farm anywhere in Arkansas. Ross said he supports the right of people to have a hog farm "if they receive the proper permits and do not harm the environment." Yet Ross also called the permitting process leading to the current hog farm flawed, believing that more public input is needed throughout the process.

Now I'm not a candidate for governor, nor would I ever become one. But I do believe if I were the governor of a state proudly boasting the country's first national river, I'd have no problem firing the director who said she didn't know her own agency had permitted the factory. Then I'd politely ask Cargill's CEO to make the factory owners financially whole and to transfer the thousands of hogs they are raising for Cargill to a suitable location.

Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for another state entity to monitor the water quality around this factory that the state permitted strikes me as a preposterous waste. It also smacks of needlessly bending way over way backwards for years to make sure that what the state enabled isn't harming the river. This conflict has never been about "farming," but the untenable location of a hog factory.

It's got to be exhausting for any governor to try to do the right thing while appeasing obvious special-interest political contributors and their lobbyists who oddly seem to enjoy having this factory in such a threatening location.

As a footnote, it's been reported that the Gov. Mike Beebe-appointed Ms. Marks plans to retire from her exalted position at the end of September.

If her pending departure is true, I can only say how fortunate for her that she'd curried enough favor from Beebe to have hung on this long after allowing such a needless situation to ever develop in our national river watershed. Perhaps her replacement will be far more diligent in protecting what rare natural treasures we have in our relatively poor state.

Yet somehow I can't help believing he or she also will be snared in the political cobwebs that too often prevent truth and doing the obvious right thing from ever escaping into reality.

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

Editorial on 08/03/2014