Newton County Times
Hog farm deal tied
By JAMES L. WHITE jamesw@harrisondaily.com
The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission on Friday approved the settlement for the conservation easement on the property that is currently C&H Hog Farm near Mt. Judea.
On June 13, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that the state had entered into an agreement with hog farm owners Jason Henson, Phillip Campbell and Richard Campbell to cease the concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO.
The agreement grants an easement of the 23.34 acres on which the hog farm stands to the Heritage Commission as a way to protect the Buffalo National River. The hog farm is near Big Creek, which is a tributary of the Buffalo six miles away.
The state agreed to pay hog farm owners $6.2 million in compensation for the easement.
Melissa Whitfield, communications director with the Department of Arkansas Heritage, said the funds will be a blend of money from the governor’s rainy-day fund, the Nature Conservancy and grant funds received by the Department of Arkansas Heritage from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council.
In a conference call Friday morning, Heritage Commission director Bill Hollimon asked commissioners for preliminary approval of the easement first, then final approval if they chose.
Holliman said the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will oversee closure and clean-up of the hog farm. The owners will have up to 180 days to close the farm and move or liquidate all current stock.
Heritage Commission deputy director Jim Andrews, who also serves as commission legal counsel, answered commissioners’ questions.
Andrews explained that ADEQ is still formulating the formal clean-up process. He said the remaining hog waste could be applied to land as fertilizer, although that wasn’t very palatable to the agency. It could also be hauled away and incinerated or treated at an approved facility.
Andrews said that process could take two years to finalize the clean-up and the agency will bear the expense, not the landowners.
When asked about the payment to the hog farm owners, Andrews said the funds would first go into escrow to satisfy the $2.4 million in Farm Credit loans on the farm. The remainder would go to the owners, but the owners’ accountants have estimated fair market value between $10 million and $12 million. As such, any amount over the $6.2 million would be tax deductible.
“But there would be no cost to the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission,” Hollimon added.
Commissioners unanimously passed both the preliminary and final approval.
Andrews said the governor had already approved the agreement, but officials are now waiting for the money to be appropriated by the legislative council to fund escrow. That will be the trigger that makes closure begin.
The final payment to the owners will be made when the easement is delivered to the Heritage Commission. It will not be designated a natural area and there will be no public access, Andrews said. The owners will still retain ownership, but the agreement said use will be restricted to:
• Free-Range livestock, excluding swine, except that livestock must not be confined for more than 45 days during any 12-month period with no more than two animal units per acre. Large animals (cows, horses, etc.) count as one animal unit, medium animals (sheep, goats, etc.) count as 0.5 animal unit, and smaller animals such as fowl will count as 0.1 animal units.
• Forestry.
• Recreational activities.
• Single-family dwelling.
• Agricultural land management activities.
• Cultivation of crop normally found in the area.
• Other uses that are not prohibited in the agreement.
• Any use authorized by the grantee.
The Heritage Commission will retain the right to monitor land use annually. Andrews explained that would entail driving past the property to ensure no CAFO is in use, but given the amount of attention paid to the hog farm in the past, there will likely be many people watching for potential violations.
The governor had earlier ordered that a temporary moratorium on CAFO permits issued in the Buffalo National River watershed be made permanent. Andrews said that means the grandfathered status of C&H’s permit, which was issued prior to the temporary moratorium, would be removed and no more CAFO permits would be allowed.