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Hog-farm tests to start in 2014

Leader: UA role is research

By Ryan McGeeney

Posted: October 4, 2013 at 2:28 a.m.

 
FAYETTEVILLE - Soil and water testing in the areas surrounding a hog farm in Newton County will begin in late winter or early spring of 2014, a University of Arkansas Agriculture Division researcher said Thursday.

Andrew Sharpley, a professor with the university’s Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, was recently appointed to lead a team of researchers in monitoring possible environmental effects associated with C&H Hog Farms, a large animal-feeding operation in Mount Judea.

The Arkansas Legislature approved more than $340,000 to fund the project in September, after the farm - as well as the permitting and approval procedures of several state agencies - drew months of intense public scrutiny.

“It’s still a bit of a work in progress - we still have some questions, and nothing’s set in stone. In the field, things happen. But these are our overarching goals,” said Sharpley, beforedescribing a series of nutrients and pathogens researchers plan to test for beginning next year.

Sharpley addressed a meeting ofthe Fayetteville Rotary Club at a Fayetteville restaurant. The address was arranged by Chuck Culver, director of development for the Agriculture Division and an assistant district governor for the Rotary Club. The district includes 82 clubs in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.

The farm, which is permitted to house about 2,500 adult pigs and as many as 4,000 piglets at any time, is also permitted to spread the pig manure over about 630 acres of grasslands around the operation. The acreage is divided into 17 fields, some of which belong to the farm owners, while others are leased from outside parties. Several of the fields abut Big Creek, a major tributary to the Buffalo National River.

Sharpley said he had received permission from the landowners of three of the 17 fields to install equipment that will test for phosphorus and other nutrients in soil and surface water.

Sharpley said he also plans to do dye trace tests, in which traceable chemicals are introduced to a groundwater system at a given point, then monitored to discover where they appear in surface waters. The testing method is crucial in areas such as Newton County where a karst geology is present and has been a top request of critics of the farm, including hydrologist Van Brahana, a former UA professor who has been conducting his own water-quality testing regime in the Buffalo National River near the farm.

Sharpley, who was appointed to lead the research by Agriculture Division Vice President Mark Cochran, said neither the university nor his team was engaging in the research to support any viewpoint on the hog farm.

“We’re a university, not a regulatory agency,” Sharpley said. “Our mission is to provide sound science for others to develop the guidelines to manage this type of operation.”

Hogs, karst and the Buffalo


By Mike Masterson


Arkansas geoscientist John Van Brahana plans on taking to the pulpit tonight in Fayetteville. His sermon (of sorts) about being stewards who supposedly protect God’s Country begins promptly at 7.

He’ll be disclosing and discussing the early results of water-quality testing that he and his team have been conducting in the Buffalo National River watershed around the C&H hog factory.

That’s the Cargill Inc.-supplied and supported facility our state so wrongheadedly (and quietly) permitted last year that allowed 6,500 hogs and piglets in the state’s most environmentally sensitive region.

The respected professor emeritus who for months has supervised these studies without financial (or moral) support from the state or any environmental agency has thus far unearthed a lot more concerns than surprises.

This evening’s public meeting at Fayetteville’s First United Presbyterian Church should prove enlightening.

“This basin has the hydrogeology we had feared,” Brahana told me the other day. The cracked limestone karst formations are well-developed with caves, springs, streams and a close relationship with surface and groundwater throughout most of the surface drainage, Brahana said.

“This means any hog waste not contained in the [two] clay-lined pits will be transported down gradient to Big Creek and the Buffalo National River,” he said. Those pits are projected to contain as much as two million gallons of hog waste. That waste will be removed and spread on application fields around Mount Judea, some very near Big Creek.

Brahana, who retired from the University of Arkansas this May, began his career in 1962 as an undergraduate lab assistant with the Illinois Geological Survey. He arrived at UA in 1990 when he worked equally for the U.S. Geological Survey and the university. He soon was hired by the university as a full professor with tenure. I believe no one understands the nature and problems associated with karst formations better than Brahana.

Tonight I expect him to describe the large subterranean voids and wide openings that he and his team of volunteers have discovered in the Big Creek basin. He also will detail the overall quality of the groundwater they’ve discovered thus far. My understanding is that the enormous range of microbes they’ve found flowing from the many springs shows there’s very little, if any, filtration of contaminants.

I know they’ve discovered the water quality from previous and current human activities, such as septic systems, fertilizing fields with cattle and poultry waste, have had an impact on the overall water quality across thebasin. The results of this create “legacy occurrences” downstream, thereby altering algae growth. They have found similar results in cave streams.

Brahana’s team has yet to complete dye tracings in the underground springs and streams to specifically define the “point-to-point pathways” the waters regularly follow. However, because the science is consistent, he already understands he’s dealing with a “fairly shallow, fast-flow groundwater system that can be easily contaminated.”

None of the wells and springs Brahana’s tested thus far show indications that hog waste has reached the Mount Judea area’s domestic water supplies. “Local landowners and farmers have been remarkably helpful and polite,” Brahana has said. “They obviously have concerns and fears.”

During tonight’s videotaped presentation, Brahana also will answer questions. He hopes to broaden the discussion to educating the audience on how concentrated animal feeding operations have seriously contaminated water in other states.

This man of science (whose test results are being voluntarily analyzed by labs in Fayetteville and Arkadelphia) and those working alongside him clearly walk the walk of deeper convictions, preferring unvarnished truth to insincere, namby-pamby political correctness.

Here’s what Brahana told me about CAFO reality: “CAFOS elsewhere have a long history of obfuscation, ignoring rules and claiming they are not ‘free to farm,’ although they themselves have wrecked the environments and economies of small family farms across a swath of America from North Carolina to Iowa. As much as the factory meat producers, the Farm Bureau, their politicians and their special-interest groups try to make this into an ‘us versus them’ scenario, at its heart is the unabashed play for money and power-to establish meaningless rules, create toothless agencies and delay, distract and intimidate so they are free to do what they want.”

Brahana continued: “The politics of this run very, very deep, and though the local landowners and farmers are cautious, they are quickly finding out that something doesn’t smell right. They have shared much with me. Now I’m sharing it with you to help educate those who don’t know.”

His closing crescendo was equally blunt: “Only open dialogue, honesty, education, and calling out any liars will stop this garbage, for those are the ones who would take advantage of family farmers who do grow our food and the citizens of Arkansas who love the Buffalo National River.”

With that kind of straight-from-the-heart language, I suspect Professor Brahana will draw the same standing ovation tonight that I’m affording this scientist while typing this final line.

-

 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him atmikemasterson10@hotmail.com.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Legislators decide to spend more than $300,000 to study runoff from a hog farm in North Arkansas.

C and H Hog Farm has been heavily debated, and now the Newton County property will open its gates to an environmental study. The measure comes following concerns that the waste could pollute the Buffalo River. The University of Arkansas will perform the monitoring, and the university will install and sample about 50 wells in and around the hog farm and make sure runoff is not contaminating the land or Buffalo River.

"Monitoring within stream, above and below the farm, and then we'll identify where there are flows in the fields into big creek," said Dr. Mark Cochran, the vice president of Arkansas Agriculture System.

Cochran said a group of scientists will focus on the hog waste.

"We're going to be looking at water quality monitoring that's associated with the potential flows of bacteria off of this hog farm operation...both from surface runoff and subsurface runoff," explained Cochran.

The project will require man power, and Cochran believes it will likely last five years if appropriately funded.

"We have six faculty that will be engaged in this, but by the time we consider our student and our technicians off of it, we'll probably have a team of about 20 employees that will be involved," said Cochran.

Thursday, a legislative panel approved $340,000 to kick-start the first year of the monitoring. Representative Nate Bell said it is money well spent.

"Everybody is concerned to make sure the river is protected. Everybody is concerned that the farmer's rights to use his property are protected, and I think this project strikes a good balance from that," said Bell.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality said the farm will not be fined if issues are uncovered by the study unless the farm somehow violates its permit. ADEQ will receive the findings of this study and then it will be open for the public's review.

UA division to study effects of hog farm on soil, water

By Sean Beherec

This article was published September 6, 2013 at 5:15 a.m.

A legislative subcommittee Thursday approved spending $340,000 in general improvement funds to study the environmental effects of a commercial pig farm on the Buffalo River watershed.

The study will be performed by the University of Arkansas’ Division of Agriculture and will test for nutrients and pollutants in the soil, groundwater and waterways around the C&H Hog Farms in Newton County.

Mark Cochran, the vice president of the division, told the committee that the funds will allow researchers to set up testing sites and perform operations for one year. Additional funds will be required as the study progresses, he said.

The preferred length of the study would be five years, Cochran said.

The actual amount requested by the division exceeded the $250,000 that Gov. Mike Beebe had requested. No member of the subcommittee voted against spending $340,000.

Matt DeCample, a spokesman for the governor, said the $250,000 was just an initial estimate for the study.

“Once we got the detailed plan on what they wanted to do to make sure they accomplished everything they wanted to with the study and the monitoring, the cost ended up higher and the governor signed off on it,” DeCample said.

Several legislators questioned whether the study would provide results that could help in other parts of the state or if they would be specific to the site and the watershed.

Cochran said the results and recommendations to the hog farm could be applied throughout the state and that the results would be shared with researchers in other parts of the country.

Cochran stressed the division would not be involved in water quality enforcement as the study progressed.

“I do want to remind you that one of our primary missions as a research extension of the university is the development and implementation of best practices so our farms can operate in compliance with state and federal laws,” rather than enforcement, Cochran said.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued a permit for the 6,500-pig operation earlier this year.The farm drew criticism from environmental groups, which expressed concerns about the facility’s effects on water quality in Big Creek, a tributary that feeds into the Buffalo National River.

The environmental groups also warned that the planned application of manure to neighboring properties could effect water quality and nutrients in the soil.

Teresa Marks, the director of the state environmental agency, said the department may “tweak” the guidelines of the permit during the course of the study if needed. But Marks said the farm would not face penalties if it is operating under the terms in the permit.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit Aug. 6 against the federal government, arguing that it failed to conduct a proper assessment of the environmental impact of the farm before issuing loan guarantees for its construction.

Environment / Health Hog farms linked to infections

Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 10:15 AM

The current issue of American Way has an article on the Buffalo National River by Fayetteville author Bob Whitby.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/sep/14/hog-farms-inspection-results-released-20130914/

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/sep/07/hutchinson-more-notice-needed-hog-farm-other-proje/

Hutchinson: More Notice Needed On Hog Farm, Other Projects
By Doug Thompson


FAYETTEVILLE undefined The state should require more public notice for construction of ventures like a large-scale hog farm in the watershed of the Buffalo National River, Asa Hutchinson, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, said Friday.

“There needs to be better notification when such a large operation is being planned,” Hutchinson said after the issue came up at a noon question-and-answer session sponsored by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. Hutchinson is running for the Republican nomination against Curtis Coleman of Little Rock and Rep. Debra Hobbs of Rogers. The only declared Democratic candidate is former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross of Prescott.

Hutchinson is a former representative of Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District, which includes Fayetteville and the area near Mount Judea where C&H Hog Farms is located. The farm received all required permits and permissions to house about 2,500 full-grown sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at a time. It's the first such facility in Arkansas to receive a general water discharge permit required through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Federal agencies that signed off on the project by granting the required loan guarantees and other approval are subject to a federal lawsuit filed by environmental groups. The lack of state requirements for more public notice also came under criticism by neighbors and environmental groups after the project’s permits went through.

“That’s good to hear. This whole thing was kept under the radar,” said Gordon Watkins of Jasper, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, which opposes the hog farm, when told of Hutchinson’s comment.

At the chamber’s meeting, Hutchinson said the state has lagged behind other states in the region in job growth in the last year. The state has a “noncompetitive” state income tax rate that needs to be reduced, he said. The state also needs to do more to bring education up to date. “The ability to write computer code is the language of the workplace in the future,” he said.

Hutchinson also said the importance of governors increase the longer the federal government remains deadlocked.

“Governors solve the problems and find the solutions when the federal government is broken and unable to lead,” he said.

The state should also adopt a policy that state government growth shouldn't exceed revenue growth, Hutchinson said.

Tyler Clark, Democratic Party chairman of Washington County, attended the chamber event. He asked Hutchinson how much he expected to cut the income tax. Hutchinson said his specific plans would be announced at a later date.

“There was no policy outlined in that talk,” Clark said after the event. “Even though he’s from Northwest Arkansas, he doesn’t resonate here.”

In the governor’s campaign, Hutchinson said he has 13 fundraisers planned in September alone. The campaign for the November 2014 election is already in full swing, he said.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/sep/08/research-group-its-own-testing-water-near-20130908/

Research group on its own testing water near hog farm
2 scientists fear analysis shorted on area around operation
By Ryan McGeeney


FAYETTEVILLE - Two Arkansas scientists are working to document water quality near the C&H Hog Farms in Newton County.

Van Brahana, a hydrologist and recently retired University of Arkansas geosciences professor, and Joe Nix, a retired distinguished professor of chemistry at Ouachita Baptist University, are working with a small team to collect and analyze water samples from a growing number of sites near the hog operation in Mount Judea.

“The reason I got into this was I perceived a gross miscarriage of characterizing a site,” Brahana said.

Like several critics of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s decision to grant a water-discharge permit to C&H Hog Farms, Brahana’s main concern is with the karst geology that defines much of the area. The porous limestone substrate contains an unknown number of caves, underground springs and other waterways.

The farm is the first and only operation in Arkansas to hold a federal concentrated animal-feeding operation permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The farm is permitted to house about 2,500 full-grown sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at any given time, and is permitted to spread waste from the hogs over about 630 acres of surrounding grasslands, some of which abut Big Creek, a tributary to the Buffalo National River.

Brahana said he has questions about the farm’s nutrient-management plan, which outlines how operators dispose of the animal waste sothat nearby waterways won’t be polluted. Brahana said he was also upset about the Farm Service Agency’s perceived failure to conduct a study of the karst structures during its environmental assessment of the farm and surrounding areas in 2012.

“I’m talking about the one they didn’t do,” Brahana said. “There was no preliminary study. They did nothing.”

In May, state Rep. David Branscum, R-Marshall, invited legislators from around the state to tour C&H Hog Farms, canoe the Buffalo National River, and hear several presentations from farmers and park Superintendent Kevin Cheri. Although Branscum said Friday that he had chosen to invite neither “pro-farm” nor “anti-farm” speakers because he wished to avoid a shouting match, Brahana said he was left with the distinct feeling of being“disinvited.”

“I think I’m perceived as a rogue tree-hugger,” Brahana said. “But I balance my approach. I am not always environmental; I am not always pro-development. I collect data, and the data I collect answer a question. If there’s an implication there will be problems, I say so.”

Shortly after Branscum’s meeting in Newton County, Brahana and his research assistants applied for and received sampling permits from the Buffalo National River administrators and the U.S. Forest Service, and in July began collecting water samples from about two dozen sites in the Big Creek Basin, the area in which the hog operation and the confluence of Big Creek and the Buffalo National River sit. Brahana said he is testing for bacteria, including E. coli and fecal coliform, as well as a spectrum of nutrients including nitrate, phosphorus, chlorides and about a dozen others.

Brahana said his team analyzes bacteria samples at the UA Water Resources Laboratory in Fayetteville, because the bacteria die quickly in sampling. The other samples are sent overnight to Nix,Brahana’s primary research partner, in Arkadelphia.

Nix founded the lab at Ouachita Baptist University in 1966, and subsequently attracted millions of dollars in research funding over the decades. Nix was also the second president of the Ozark Society, accepting the post after the organization’s founder, Neal Compton, stepped down.

Nix said the primary importance of the research project was to establish background data for water quality in the area, so that if pollutants are later found, the change can be detected.

“The truth of the matter is, [the Environmental Quality Department] should have had background data up there. They should be doing what Brahana is doing right now, but they’re not,” Nix said. “When you have something like this that stands to change everything, you have to have good background data. You need to know it particularly because it’s a karst area - it’s terribly important that you know what’s there now.”

Nix and Brahana said the quarterly analysis the Environmental Quality Department does with samples taken along the Buffalo National River are inadequate, both in their frequency and in their timing.

“When things move, they don’t move on a calendar schedule geared to humans,” Brahana said. “They move in response to storm events and low-flow events.”

Brahana said that all the principal researchers on his team have been working without pay, but that technical material and equipment costs to complete the baseline research are beyond what the researchers can afford to pay.

Some of the testing Brahana hopes to do, including a dye test, in which a chemically unique dye is traced through groundwater pathways, will amount to tens of thousands of dollars. In an Aug. 31 letter to Gov. Mike Beebe, Brahana outlined his research and estimated total costs to be about $69,000.

The fact that the stateLegislature recently allocated more than $340,000 for the UA Agriculture Division to perform water and soil testing in the area does not dissuade Brahana and Nix fromthe belief that their research is necessary.

“I saw allusions to the idea that [the university’s] study will answer all those questions,” Brahana said. “Idon’t believe it’s designed to answer those. I think it’s focused on the farm itself. It’s not focused on the regional basin. It only focuses on the farm, and three of the 17 fields surrounding the farm, using wells instead of springs and other sites that are important to evaluate.”

Brahana said he was considering applying to the Arkansas Natural Resources Council for funding, but would likely avoid funding from environmental-activist organizations to avoid the appearance of tampering or impropriety. The Environmental Quality Department’s director, Teresa Marks, said her department isn’t able to fund outside research such as Brahana’s but that her agency would take Brahana’s research into account when considering permit applications and renewals in the basin area.

Brahana said his goal with the project was to affect permitting regulations in ecologically fragile areas of the state.

“My main concern, looking long-range, is to establish state regulations that would be protective of environments that are more fragile, like a karst region,” Brahana said. “I don’t think the state has an effective set of regulations now.”