MASTERSON ONLINE: Senate and Farm Bureau in lockstep by Mike Masterson | Today at 1:56 a.m. Wow! Did you see how most of our elected senators fell right into lockstep last week with former dairy farmer Senator Gary Stubblefield’s terrible bill (aka the Superfluous Stubblefield Stinker) who is carrying water for the […]
Protect environment Everyone who breathes air and drinks water cares about Arkansas Senate Bill 550–which would transfer hog and other farm permitting authority from one state agency to another and allow people applying for manure waste system permits to waive public notification requirements–no matter what work you do or how […]
Protect our resources Please stop Senate Bill 550. We must protect all water quality in Arkansas. Protecting the Buffalo and its watershed is important on so many levels. But this bill will put all Arkansas watersheds, rivers, lakes and streams in jeopardy. This bill, backed of course by the powerful shortsighted Farm Bureau of which we […]
Bill to change how Arkansas farms get permits draws EPA review Effect on federal rules, enforcement seen at issue in state-authority switch by Emily Walkenhorst | Today at 4:30 a.m. Federal environmental regulators are reviewing an Arkansas Senate bill that would change how hog farms and other farms are permitted, concerned that […]
Arkansas Times Governor expresses resistance to shift of pig waste regulation Posted By Max Brantley on Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 3:23 PM Gov. Asa Hutchinson has weighed in with resistance to the Farm Bureau legislation to ease regulation of liquid animal waste from the likes of factory hog farms by shifting oversight from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to the farmer-friendly Arkansas […]
KATV LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — An effort to move regulatory authority on liquid livestock waste permits over to another state entity is causing a stink at the Arkansas State Capitol. SB550, filed by Rep. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, would transfer permitting authority from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to the Arkansas […]
KATV Liquid livestock waste permit transfer causing a stink at the Arkansas Capitol by Marine Glisovic LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — An effort to move regulatory authority on liquid livestock waste permits over to another state entity is causing a stink at the Arkansas State Capitol. SB550, filed by Rep. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, […]
Arkansasonline Arkansas farm-permits bill progresses; authority shift given Senate nod by Emily Walkenhorst A bill that would transfer hog and other farm permitting authority from one state agency to another passed in the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday after a brief discussion over whether the bill says what its sponsor claims it […]
Fayetteville Flyer Fayetteville City Council votes to oppose Senate animal farm bill By Todd Gill The Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday voiced its opposition to a proposed Senate bill that would change the way animal farm permits are handled in Arkansas. The council voted 6-0 to support a resolution to oppose […]
Greed over ecology Good gobbledygook! They walk among us and sit in the state Legislature. Just when we feel that the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has gotten the message about hog waste, porous limestone and the resulting harm to the our nationally treasured Buffalo River, the self-servers that walk […]
MIKE MASTERSON: A real stinkerby Mike Masterson | Today at 2:15 a.m. Senate Bill 550, sponsored by state Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a former dairy farmer from Branch, aims to replace the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s permitting system for hog factories with a far less demanding “certification” process by the Natural Resources […]
JOHN BRUMMETT: Listen to the experts, Gusby John Brummett | Today at 4:30 a.m. Lonesome Dove is an epic novel and a masterpiece in the television miniseries genre. Augustus McCrae leaps from the pages and screen to charm and inspire with his cad’s exterior and hero’s heart. But those were the 1870s. The […]
MIKE MASTERSON: End run in Ledge Did you read about the latest legislative end run around the existing authority responsible for issuing permits to meat-raising facilities like C&H Hog Farms in Newton County? Turning into law Sen. Gary Stubblefield’s Senate Bill 550–which would transfer the authority for approval of concentrated […]
NWAonline Owners seek second hog farm permit by Emily Walkenhorst Co-owners of a Newton County hog farm have resubmitted their application to build a hog farm in Franklin County. Philip Campbell and Jason Henson, who co-own C&H Hog Farms with Richard Campbell, withdrew the application late last year after the Arkansas […]
NWAonline Bill seeks to diminish oversight of hog farms On Thursday, Senate Bill 550 passed the Arkansas Senate Agricultural Committee. A Farm Bureau agent sat next to the bill’s sponsor. This bill is meant to gut the regulations that got the C&H Hog Farm permit denied. This bill weakens existing […]
Must protect our river As someone who has witnessed firsthand the precipitous degradation of the Buffalo River, I took heart when the state agency that granted the initial permit finally recognized what the experts had said from the start: The geology of the watershed was far too porous, the transmission […]
Arkansasonline Bill would transfer Arkansas hog farms’ oversight Permit-process shield also proposed by Emily Walkenhorst The responsible party for issuing hog farm permits would change under a bill that cleared an Arkansas Senate committee Thursday. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality would no longer have the authority to issue — or […]
DCReport Trump Administration Pays Brazilian Meatpacker To Foul Arkansas River Bailout Money Intended for Hog Farmers Ends Up in Corporate Coffers By Sarah Okeson A Brazilian-owned meatpacking firm that buys pork from an Arkansas farm suspected of fouling our nation’s first national river would receive about $5 million from Trump’s bailout program for American […]
Take action to save the river by RICHARD MASON Special to the Democrat-Gazette | February 24, 2019 at 1:52 a.m. To The Beautiful Buffalo River Action Committee: Resign! You are doing more harm to the Buffalo National River by existing than you are by proposing watershed improvements. You are putting […]
Arkansasonline OPINION MASTERSON ONLINE: A misleading plan by Mike Masterson My Feb. 16 column described how C&H Hog Farms wrongly claimed in its Regulation 6 nutrient management plan that 80 percent of its phosphorus-laden hog waste would not be spread across the Buffalo National River and Big Creek watersheds. That naturally […]