MIKE MASTERSON: Under fire

by Mike Masterson | Today at 4:30 a.m.

You may recall the pig-in-a-poke legislation known as Senate Bill 550 introduced by Sen. Gary Stubblefield during the recent General Assembly. The former dairy farmer from Branch was pushed whole hog by our unelected fourth branch of government, otherwise known as the Farm Bureau.

This failed bill I came to call the Superfluous Stubblefield Stinker, sought to replace the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's permitting and regulatory process for hog factories with a far less-demanding "certification" system overseen by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. That commission lacked the resources and experience to effectively regulate potential swine waste contamination of our state's water quality.

I especially appreciated that Central Arkansas Water panned the bill in its news release about the bill: "SB550 presents a threat to the health and well-being of the people of Arkansas. If enacted, this bill would completely change the way liquid animal waste disposal systems, which are used primarily by large swine farms to dispose of liquid swine waste, are regulated in Arkansas. Although characterized by supporters of the bill as an effort to achieve greater efficiency in the permitting process, SB550 has the potential to expose some of the state's most important natural resources, including public drinking water reservoirs, to liquid animal waste.

"Currently ADEQ is charged with issuing permits and conducting oversight of [such] disposal systems. ADEQ's process is effective and fair. It balances the needs of swine and dairy farmers with the right of the public to a safe and clean environment. It ensures the involvement of well-trained, knowledgeable professionals with years of experience. SB550 would wipe out the current permitting process and oversight of these facilities and gut current regulatory protections. Public notification requirements would be eliminated. Minimum distance setback from neighbors, streams and lakes could be lost. Subsurface investigation requirements to determine suitability for waste lagoons would no longer be required. Anonymous complaints would not be accepted or investigated, and public reporting necessarily would be deterred. Established, effective enforcement protocol would go by the wayside. As a result, swine farms would operate in a much more permissive environment, and the prospect of liquid animal waste entering the water reservoirs of our great state would become a much greater threat."

Thankfully, Gov. Asa Hutchinson finally sealed an airtight bag around the stinker after it had passed a Farm Bureau-compliant Senate and was before the House. He said the idea of handing such critical responsibilities to an unprepared Natural Resources Commission needed further reflection.

That brings me to what the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission discovered from its dealings with Natural Resources.

Our ace outdoor writer Bryan Hendricks recently wrote how soured Game and Fish leaders have become in dealings with the Natural Resources Commission since a joint meeting May 1. That disenchantment included Natural Resources' reported failure to properly uphold its end of a supposedly mutual project.

Ford Overton, chairman of Game and Fish, was fried to a crisp with the lack of response to helping restore the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area, a prime wetlands region for waterfowl hunting. Bayou Meto has been above flood pool for the past three years and the Natural Resources Commission supposedly was the lead state agency for funding its restoration project.

Hendricks wrote that Jennifer Sheehan, the Game and Fish federal liaison, was concerned Natural Resources had yet to contact her for follow-up meetings about the project.

A fuming Overton then wondered if it might be possible to get a different, non-federal sponsor. "Anybody, anybody but the Natural Resources Commission," he said. "They're so unmotivated. They so don't care. The leadership ... doesn't understand it. ... The entities have $140 million invested in an idle project that could be saving a lot of habitat. They don't give a s**t. ... There's no sense of urgency. None."

Attorney Ken Reeves of Harrison, vice chairman and incoming Game and Fish chairman, said the Natural Resources Commission's attitude also has troubled him, reported Hendricks. "I was underwhelmed at the last meeting by their lack of inspiration. They said they were going to pay for the project by selling water to people that don't want to buy water. They've got to figure out how to do their part of this. There's no creative thinking."

And this, valued readers, is the same Natural Resources Commission with which Stubblefield wanted to replace the Department of Environmental Quality when it comes to monitoring and responsibility for conditions at Arkansas swine factories.

Methinks the good people of Arkansas should extend further appreciation to the governor for recognizing this purely political idea for stitching together a supposed Natural Resources Commission silk purse was nothing more than a raggedy sow's ear all along.