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Taking a Health Hazard Home

New York Times
By STEPHANIE STROM SEPT. 15, 2014
 

Workers at hog farms have the highest incidence of S. aureus, a bacterium that can contaminate food and give rise to illnesses, some life threatening.  

A new study of a small group of workers at industrial hog farms in North Carolina has found that they continued to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria over several days, raising new questions for public health officials struggling to contain the spread of such pathogens.

Although the bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, is common and does not always cause illness, it can contaminate food and give rise to skin infections and respiratory diseases. Its methicillin-resistant variation, known as MRSA, has wreaked havoc on hospital systems, causing life-threatening complications.

The study focused on hog farms because previous research had found the highest incidence of S. aureus among workers in those settings.

As of 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, there were an estimated 75,309 serious infections from MRSA and an estimated 9,670 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Improved hospital procedures have helped reduce the incidence of infection, officials say, but researchers are now concerned about strains of S. aureus resistant to a variety of antibiotics like tetracycline, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin.

Among the 22 workers tested in the new study, reported in the Sept. 8 edition of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 10 workers carried antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria in their noses for up to four days. Another six workers were intermittent carriers of the bacteria.

The 10 workers found to carry the bacteria persistently had strains associated with livestock that were resistant to multiple drugs, and one also carried MRSA.

Three more of the workers tested positive for strains of S. aureus that were not resistant to antibiotics. So in total, 86 percent of the workers in the study carried the S. aureus bacteria, compared with about one-third of the population at large, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the researchers, Christopher D. Heaney, a professor of environmental health sciences and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the study was the first in the United States to find that persistence of the bacteria in farm workers.

Previously, researchers had thought the bacteria would clear from the noses of hog workers within 24 hours. A study published last year of 29 veterinary students exposed to pig barns for just a few hours found that only 22 percent of them carried methicillin-resistant S. aureus, and none of them carried the bacteria 24 hours later.

European studies found similar patterns, leading researchers to conclude that carrying the bacteria in the nasal passage was probably a result of contamination from hand-to-nose contact or bioaerosols that passed quickly.

“This study, while small, is important because it shows the persistence of this bacteria for the first time in the U.S. setting,” Dr. Heaney said. “If workers continue to carry it over a period of days, they are going to be interacting with their families and in their communities, and the question for public health officials then is whether they pose any greater risk.”

Data for the study was collected by researchers from the University of North Carolina working with the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, or Reach, which works to improve quality of life for low-income residents in eastern North Carolina, home to many industrial pig operations.

Big ol' permit loophole
By Mike Masterson
September 13, 2014

Let's head back down to that Mount Judea hog factory the state wrongheadedly allowed to begin spraying millions of gallons of swine waste on acres that border a major tributary of our precious Buffalo National River.
Joe Nix of Arkadelphia, a prominent water chemist, environmentalist, naturalist, and professor at Ouachita Baptist University who's widely considered the senior watchdog of Arkansas streams and lakes, sent a revelation of sorts the other day.
He described how Cargill Inc. (the factory's supplier and chief customer) and the family that owns and manages it received regulatory approval to operate in the Buffalo watershed with relative ease.
Nix said they achieved their goal by using an odd loophole in the state's "General Permit" that was designed basically to accommodate smaller farms with limited resources rather than mega-factory corporations.
While Nix's point might seem a tad tedious for some, it demonstrates the pretzel twists I believe our state Department of Environmental Quality (cough) performed in order to approve this factory.
I'll start at the beginning. Nix said our state, like others, requires a permit to discharge waste into natural waters in various regions. Ordinary applicants with larger farming proposals may be required to prepare a review of technical aspects of the project. That usually has meant a "Use Attainability Analysis" and/or an "Environmental Impact Statement" could be required, he said.
But the full permit process is expensive and regulative overkill for some very small projects, Nix further explained. "In some cases the water quality standards may be unreasonable since the standards for each region are based on chemical characteristics of a stream in that region which has not been impacted. For this reason, [Pollution Control and Ecology] developed a way for small operations to bypass the expense of a full permit review. This 'General Permit' was intended to help the smaller operator ...
"But unfortunately," Nix continued, "a mistake was made and it can be used for larger operations, too. Cargill and [C&H Hog Farms] took advantage of this and used the General Permit approach to obtain their operating permit. This loophole needs to be closed."
Yes, it most certainly does. As a result of this loophole, the seriously larger operations commonly known as concentrated animal feeding operations who apply under its provisions basically get a pass on jumping through safeguard processes contained in the full permit review.
That's especially interesting, since I've wondered from the beginning of Mount Judea's hog horror why Arkansas didn't demand exhaustive waste-flow dye studies (as well as others) before even remotely considering a hog factory in this treasured area.
Did no one at the agency notice its own permit's loophole at the time? Why not? Who wrote and approved the permit? This Grand Canyon-sized "oversight" smells half-ham intentional to me.
So when Cargill and the factory owners insist they have been legitimately approved under the General Permit and never violated a single permitting regulation, they technically are correct because of the way it's written.
Today the C&H hogs are doing their business in a karst-riddled region where they never should have been permitted. That's about the 60th of so verse of that same song that I and so many others have been harmonizing on since this factory set up shop.
Nix said several weeks back that Mike Luker, Cargill's president of pork production for Arkansas, called him and said he and others realized Cargill had made a mistake in originally locating this factory near the hamlet of Mount Judea and "it was Luker's job to find a solution."
The corporation announced its solution Monday: It was staying put and making some modifications to ensure the factory would not wind up contaminating the Buffalo River.
He also said Cargill would not be placing any more such places in the watershed. And the crowds across Arkansas and America screamed "Hooray!"
Nix responds: "Now we find ourselves with a very large swine feeding operation situated in an area that has karst features below ground and which has the capacity to deliver minimally treated waste into Big Creek and on to the Buffalo River. Yes, Cargill did 'make a mistake' and the only real solution is for one of the world's 10 largest corporations to cancel any contracts, make the C&H owners financially whole, and remove the operation that serves it from the Buffalo River watershed."
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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 09/13/2014

Hog farm gets corporate support; Coalition expresses disappointment
 
Posted: Tuesday, September 9, 2014 6:45 am |
Staff Report news@harrisondaily.com | 0 comments

In a letter to the Buffalo River Coalition, international food conglomerate Cargill responded to extensive public outcry in opposition to the location of C & H Hog Farms near the Buffalo National River by steadfastly committing to the factory hog facility’s location. Cargill has self-imposed a moratorium on new swine facilities and expansions of C & H in the Buffalo River watershed, along with committing to explore technology to mitigate the effects of their current facility.
In a letter written to Gordon Watkins of The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Mike Luker, president of Cargill Pork said his company had met with numerous individuals and organizations, learning much about “the understandable passion people have for the Buffalo National River in Northwest Arkansas.”
The Buffalo River Coalition is made up of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, The Ozark Society, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Arkansas Canoe Club.
Luker went on to say that Cargill, as a 50-year corporate citizen of Arkansas, shared the desire to preserve and protect the Buffalo.
Cargill, Luker said, had committed to the following actions:
• To line the holding pond and settling basin with synthetic liners
• To explore leak detection technology for the liners, as well as water treatment options and systems
• Cover the settling basin
• Install a flare system to burn off gases
• Continue to investigate new, leading-edge technologies with plans to begin installing and testing new technology for nutrient management before the end of the calendar year
• Cargill has established a permanent moratorium on the construction of any new hog facilities in the Buffalo River watershed or expansion of the existing C & H Hog Farm
In a letter sent on August 28, the Buffalo River Coalition responded by thanking Cargill for its efforts, but calling into question the effectiveness of mitigation and remaining firm in calling for the facility’s removal from the watershed.
“While our coalition is pleased that Cargill has voluntarily committed to a moratorium on future hog facilities in the Buffalo River watershed,” said National Parks Conservation Association program manager Emily Jones, “a confined animal feeding operation should not have been placed directly upstream from America’s first national river to begin with. It seems contradictory to acknowledge that expensive, experimental technologies are needed to mitigate a so-called ‘state of the art facility’s’ impacts, while having also stated that no harmful bacteria or nutrients will reach the river undefined which one is correct and are these technologies going to prevent contamination or create more?”
Cargill, the coalition said, has committed to support “new, leading edge technology for nutrient management,” specifically a Plasma Pyrolysis process, which experts call an untested and unproved technology for handling liquid swine waste. In its response to Cargill’s proposal, the Buffalo River Coalition stated that implementing this program as a solution would turn C & H, Mt. Judea and the Buffalo National River into “a research laboratory for a private company to test a new application for a process heretofore used for medical waste and other solid material disposal.” And that “the Buffalo River watershed is not the place to carry out such risky experiments.”
“Rather than moving the facility to a region without porous karst geology, a school next door or a national river six miles downstream, Cargill has dug its heels in and offered the people of Arkansas and national park supporters across the country mitigation measures that leave the fate of our first national river to chance,” Watkins said in the letter. “This is not the place for an experiment and we shouldn’t be rolling the dice with Arkansas’ crown jewel. There is one solution: remove the facility from the Buffalo River watershed.”
According to the letter, during an early meeting between the coalition and Cargill, the hog producer admitted that, in retrospect, Mt. Judea was a poor site choice for the C & H facility and was committed to doing its part to correct the error. The coalition then accused Cargill of reversing its position, and it had decided to fully support the facility in its current location.
According to the Buffalo River Coalition, while liners can provide added protection against waste leakage, published information by the USD and others indicates that installation must be done with great care and that a method for leak detection is highly desirable. Avoiding damage to the liners due to agitation and sludge removal is difficult. Millions of gallons of swine feces and urine will still pose a significant risk to both surface and underground water undefined with the potential for permanent damage to the Buffalo River, said the coalition.
“We’re not talking about a what-if catastrophic scenario, though that’s certainly possible too,” said Bob Allen, board member of the Arkansas Canoe Club. “The National Park Service has expressed concern over the gradual buildup of pollutants in the river. Cargill isn’t just jeopardizing our state’s environmental health, they’re jeopardizing our entire tourism economy. Hardly a fair trade for the six jobs that C & H supports. In contrast, the Buffalo supports $44 million in spending and 610 jobs annually.”
The coalition has made it clear that it believes the hog farm is located in the worst possible location, atop karst geology, immediately adjacent to a school and the town of Mt. Judea and just a few miles upstream on the banks of a major tributary of the Buffalo National River.
The coalition closes its letter to Cargill by stating: “We will also continue to educate the public about the unacceptable risks posed by the inappropriate location of this swine CAFO and we will encourage Cargill as well as state agencies and governmental bodies to recognize the true costs of allowing this risk to continue. We support nothing short of closure or relocation.”
The Buffalo River Coalition was formed to protect the Buffalo National River from this urgent factory hog farm threat. The coalition filed a lawsuit in August 2013 challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for their inadequate review and improper authorization of loan guarantee assistance to C&H.

Sep 8, 5:11 PM EDT


Cargill rejects calls to move Arkansas hog farm

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press

Minnesota-based food processor Cargill said Monday that it has no intention to shutter or relocate an Arkansas hog farm, despite concerns from environmentalists who say the operation poses a pollution threat to the nearby Buffalo River.

A Cargill spokesman said the company is committed to installing newer technology at its Mount Judea facility in northern Arkansas - including using synthetics to line the holding pond and settling basin and installing a flare system to burn off gasses - and has already self-imposed a moratorium on expansion of hog production in the watershed area. The Buffalo was the country's first designated national river in 1972, and is a large tourism draw for the state.

At least four conservation groups have raised concerns for more than a year that manure runoff could affect the quality of one of the state's scenic crown jewels.

The farm is located on a tributary less than 10 miles from the river and has some 2,500 sows and 4,000 piglets, all of which are owned by Cargill. The three families who own the hog farm contract with Cargill, which owns the animals.

Mike Martin, a Cargill spokesman, said the hog operation has told the company it wants to stay in the area and that that farmers there have done nothing wrong.

"There's a frustration because there are other things directly impacting the quality of the river: livestock operations and cattle ranches are all over the place, including near the park boundaries, there's cattle standing in the river," Martin said Monday. "There are other things that are impacting water quality, and those aren't being addressed."

Perhaps illustrating the recent tension between the company and its critics, Mike Luker, the president of Cargill Pork, confessed in a letter last month to the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance that "a solution which satisfies all is probably unrealistic."

Environmental groups congratulated Cargill on its self-imposed moratorium, but pledged to keep applying pressure on the company to relocate the operation.

"We assume part of this is about setting a precedent- if they shut this one down, then environmentalists will be clamoring all over the country to shut other operations down," said Gordon Watkins, the president of the watershed alliance.

National Parks Conservation Association program manager Emily Jones said in a statement that while the coalition is pleased Cargill has voluntarily committed to the moratorium, an operation such as C&H "should not have been placed directly upstream from America's�first national river to begin with."

Martin said Cargill and conservationists can co-exist in the area.

"(These families have) been farming for more than 50 years. They have a very good record," he said.

 

Bacteria counts up in tributary system
 
Posted: Monday, September 8, 2014 4:00 pm
 
Faron Usrey, Aquatic Ecologist, with Buffalo National River will present information on monitoring of bacteria of Big Creek and Buffalo National River on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at Boone County Library. The program begins at 5:30 p.m. and the library is located at 221 W. Stephenson in Harrison.
Monitoring of bacteria and oxygen levels has been a long-established practice for Buffalo National River.
Presently Faron is transitioning to routine monitoring of Big Creek and several areas of the river. Thus far, data suggest this year's frequent rain showers have elevated E. coli not only in Big Creek but in many surrounding tributary systems as well. Hear what the latest findings are and how monitoring plans will expand to other tributaries that flow into America’s first national river.

http://www.npca.org/news/media-center/press-releases/2014/cargill-to-buffalo-river.html

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: September 8, 2014
Contact: Perry Wheeler, National Parks Conservation Association, P: 202-419-3712

Cargill to Buffalo River Coalition: 6,500 Hogs are “Good Neighbors” to America’s First National River

Mt. Judea, AR – In a commitment letter to the Buffalo River Coalition and a subsequent op-ed in Minnesota’s Star Tribune, international food conglomerate Cargill responded to extensive public outcry in opposition to the location of C & H Hog Farms near Arkansas’ Buffalo National River by steadfastly committing to the factory hog facility’s ill-sited location. Cargill has self-imposed a moratorium on new swine facilities and expansions of C & H in the Buffalo River watershed, along with committing to explore technology to mitigate the effects of their current facility. In a letter sent August 28, the Buffalo River Coalition responded by thanking Cargill for its efforts, but calling into question the effectiveness of mitigation and remaining firm in calling for the facility’s removal from the watershed.
“While our coalition is pleased that Cargill has voluntarily committed to a moratorium on future hog facilities in the Buffalo River watershed, a Confined Animal Feeding Operation should not have been placed directly upstream from America’s first national river to begin with,” said National Parks Conservation Association Program Manager Emily Jones. “It seems contradictory to acknowledge that expensive, experimental technologies are needed to mitigate a so-called ‘state of the art facility’s’ impacts, while having also stated that no harmful bacteria or nutrients will reach the river – which one is correct and are these technologies going to prevent contamination or create more?”

Cargill has committed to support “new, leading edge technology for nutrient management,” specifically a Plasma Pyrolysis process, which experts call an untested and unproven technology for handling liquid swine waste. In their response to Cargill’s proposals, the Buffalo River Coalition stated that implementing this program as a solution would turn C & H, Mt. Judea and the Buffalo National River into “a research laboratory for a private company to test a new application for a process heretofore used for medical waste and other solid material disposal.” And that “the Buffalo River watershed is not the place to carry out such risky experiments.”

“Rather than moving the facility to a region without porous karst geology, a school next door or a national river 6 miles downstream, Cargill has dug its heels in and offered the people of Arkansas and national park supporters across the country mitigation measures that leave the fate of our first national river to chance,” said Buffalo River Watershed Alliance President Gordon Watkins. “This is not the place for an experiment and we shouldn’t be rolling the dice with Arkansas’ crown jewel. There is one solution: remove the facility from the Buffalo River watershed.”

Additionally, Cargill stated its intention to install synthetic membrane waste pond liners. While liners can provide added protection against waste leakage, published information by USDA and others indicates that installation must be done with great care and that a method for leak detection is highly desirable. Avoiding damage to the liners due to agitation and sludge removal is difficult. Millions of gallons of swine feces and urine will still pose a significant risk to both surface and underground water – with the potential for permanent damage to the Buffalo River.

“We’re not talking about a what-if catastrophic scenario, though that’s certainly possible too. The National Park Service has expressed concern over the gradual buildup of pollutants in the river,” said Bob Allen, board member of the Arkansas Canoe Club. “Cargill isn’t just jeopardizing our state’s environmental health, they’re jeopardizing our entire tourism economy. Hardly a fair trade for the 6 jobs that C & H supports. In contrast, the Buffalo supports $44 million in spending and 610 jobs annually.”
The coalition closes its letter to Cargill by stating: “We will also continue to educate the public about the unacceptable risks posed by the inappropriate location of this swine CAFO and we will encourage Cargill as well as state agencies and governmental bodies to recognize the true costs of allowing this risk to continue. We support nothing short of closure or relocation.”
The Buffalo River Coalition was formed to protect the Buffalo National River from this urgent factory hog farm threat. The coalition filed a lawsuit in August of 2013 challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for their inadequate review and improper authorization of loan guarantee assistance to C&H. More recently, the coalition pointed out additional misrepresentations around the permitting of C & H Hog Farms and called on ADEQ to reopen the permitting process. Those calls have been ignored by the state.

To view Cargill’s commitment letter, visit: http://buffaloriverwatershedalliance.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Gordon%20Watkins%20TBRWA%20Aug%2019%202014.pdf

To view the Buffalo River Coalition’s response, visit:

 http://buffaloriverwatershedalliance.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Coalition%20response%20to%20Mike%20Luker%20%20.pdf

Community Groups Petition EPA for Precedent Setting Case on Civil Rights Violations

Decade-long struggle with North Carolina over public health shifts to the EPA as community groups state lax oversight of hog operations violates civil rights

WARSAW, N.C.-The North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help and Waterkeeper Alliance, supported by Earthjustice, filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 alleging that North Carolina's lax regulation of hog waste disposal discriminates against communities of color in eastern North Carolina.

The complaint is the latest chapter in a longstanding struggle to address the community health impacts posed by massive amounts of fecal waste from industrial hog facilities. Community members have repeatedly asked the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for stronger protections, but are now seeking help from the EPA, stating that a recent decision by DENR to issue a permit that will cover thousands of hog facilities without adequate waste disposal controls violates federal law and civil rights.

"Rural eastern North Carolinians, especially poor people and people of color, continue to suffer from the horrible conditions brought on by the industrial hog industry" said Naeema Muhammad, Director of North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. "It's the State's job to regulate these operations and make sure that the people and the environment are protected. This complaint is about making sure they do that."
The permit continues to allow industry to flush hog feces and urine into open, unlined pits and then to spray this "liquid manure" onto nearby fields. This practice leads to waste contaminating nearby waters. The waste also drifts as mist onto neighboring properties, causing unbearable odors. The impact is worsened by the growth of the poultry industry in the state and the piles of chicken waste that often sit uncovered on fields for days on end.
These operations are disproportionately located in communities of color where neighbors are forced to endure the smell, water quality impacts and the embarrassment associated with the facilities operating near their homes.

"You can't imagine what it's like to live next to one of these hog operations," said Devon Hall, Project Manager at the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH). "It's hard to enjoy the outdoors and it's embarrassing to invite company over, because the flies and the smells make life miserable. We've complained for decades about it."

"The negative impacts that hog operations have on the environment and neighboring communities is outrageous, and the government is turning a blind eye to those in harm's way," said Larry Baldwin, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) Coordinator at Waterkeeper Alliance. "It's time the State took its responsibility to protect the citizens of North Carolina seriously. After years of working to improve water quality in the eastern portion of the state, I can say that it's time for the state to take action."
The complainants have notified officials at DENR and EPA of the filing and are asking EPA to initiate an investigation.

ONLINE VERSION OF STATEMENT (INCLUDES LINKS TO FILING): http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/community-groups-petition-epa-for-precedent-setting-case-on-civil-rights-violations

Subject: Proposed Notification Procedures for new CAFOs passes legislative review

This morning a joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees on Public Health, Welfare and Labor heard proposed changes to Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Regulation 6 to increase notification procedures for new Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) . The changes were the recommendations of a Committee created by Act 1511 during the 2013 legislative session. No committee members ask any questions and the proposed changes passed review. The draft changes will now go back before the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission for final adoption.

Having better public notifications procedures in place as part of the permitting process for new CAFOs will provide citizens with the knowledge to stand up for proper siting and more information on proposed facilities.


The proposed changes can be found here: http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/regs/drafts/reg06_draft_docket_14-004-R/reg06_draft_docket_14-004-R.htm

Cargill staying put
Root hog or die
By Mike Masterson
8/31/14

Cargill Inc., the multinational corporation responsible for placing the factory of up to 6,500 swine in the Buffalo National River watershed, has responded to sustained public outcries by saying it has no plans to abandon its grossly misplaced venture called C&H Hog Farms.
Sounds to me as if the Minnesota-based corporation is vowing to "root hog or die."
In an Aug. 20 letter, Mike Luker, president of Cargill's pork operations, tells Joe Nix of Arkadelphia that the privately owned corporation, after weighing its options in the precious and fragile watershed, has decided to stay put and make some modifications to its current operation.
Nix, by the way, has a long and distinguished history with fighting to preserve water quality in Arkansas, including the water-quality lab he started at Ouachita Baptist University in 1966 where he used undergraduate students to study many of the rivers and lakes in Arkansas through the years with funding from the EPA, Corps of Engineers and numerous others. Nix also was the second president of the Ozark Society, following the Buffalo River's first hero, Neil Compton.
Luker says Cargill will continue to support the farm and its family owners, and reported that changes in "environmental safeguards" (that should have been firm state requirements before a permit was even entertained ... then denied) include the following:
• Lining the factory's odoriferous holding lagoons and settling basins with a synthetic liner (ostensibly to minimize leakage into the groundwater system).
• Covering the settling basins (to minimize the God-awful odors and gas emanations).
• Installing a flaring system to burn off resulting gas emissions.
• Exploring leak-detection technology for these new liners, as well as water-treatment options and technologies, whatever exploring those means.
• Incorporating leading-edge technologies (also whatever that means because those aren't detailed).
Luker contends there will be ongoing open and transparent communication with environmental associations such as the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society, Canoe Club, and National Parks Conservation Association.
Karst expert and former University of Arkansas geosciences professor Dr. John Van Brahana, who has spent a year with his team of volunteers monitoring subsurface water quality and flow around this factory, said he finds it interesting that Luker made no mention of keeping open and ongoing communication with the National Park Service. It was among the group of relevant entities who were never informed of the initial plans to establish this factory in the watershed the Park Service actually manages and monitors.
Luker says Cargill does not intend to place any additional CAFOs in the Buffalo River basin, nor expand the present factory. Our state finally has taken similar action well after this place was ensconced.
I guess that means the corporation doesn't realize the problem that thousands of Arkansans and others have today doesn't involve the potential for other of its factories to threaten the quality of this national treasure. The objections are that our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough) was so relatively quick and quiet in allowing this factory to operate in the sacred watershed in the first place.
In a closing worthy of Cargill's polished public relations specialist Michael Martin, Luker tells Nix: "We also pledge our continuous efforts to explore fact-based and science-based technologies and solutions that further safeguard the area where C&H operates. I realize a solution which satisfies all is probably unrealistic. I do wish to keep the door open for future dialogue and hope you consider doing the same."
I might as well repeat myself for effect here. It strikes me that Cargill could have saved (and still could) an awful lot of hard feelings and an enormous potential PR nightmare from potentially polluting the country's first national river with hog waste had it simply decided this endless battle in the public interest is neither morally nor financially feasible.
 
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson@arkansasonline.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial on 08/31/2014

The following op-ed was written in response to BRWA VP Jack Stewart's article, "Cargill Operation Is Contradictory" in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on August 25.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/273253621.html

Counterpoint: Cargill's Arkansas pig farm is a good neighbor

Article by: MIKE LUKER Updated: August 29, 2014 - 10:50 PM

The contract operation strives to uphold environmental safety standards.



On Aug. 25, “A Cargill pig operation is contradictory” commented on our contract hog farm in northwest Arkansas. I would like to provide readers with Cargill Pork’s perspective.

The farm is owned by three local families who have resided in rural northwest Arkansas for eight generations, farmed the land for half a century and raised hogs for more than a decade. They grew up near the mountain community of Mount Judea, learning to swim in local creeks and fish in local ponds, all the while producing food for others.

Mount Judea is nestled in a portion of the state that forms the backdrop for the Buffalo National River, a treasured waterway that became America’s first national river in 1972. Much of the river’s watershed is part of National Park Service land, and agriculture, including hog farming, has taken place in the watershed long before there was a park. Today, cattle ranches, poultry barns, hog operations and crop fields dot the landscape.

In 2013, with a state-approved permit in hand, the three families of C&H expanded their hog production by building a farm incorporating the latest design elements, including environmental safeguards exceeding state or federal government requirements. The farm houses 2,500 Cargill-owned sows and up to 4,000 piglets. The piglets stay on the farm for about 21 days before being weaned and transported to farms outside Arkansas to be raised for pork.

Objections to the farm surfaced because of its number of hogs and the manure they generate. More hogs lived in the area 10 years ago, albeit spread across 11 farms that didn’t have the benefit of today’s waste-handling technology. C&H is the lone remaining area hog farm, and the family owners earn their livelihoods producing hogs for Cargill.

The potential for hog manure being released into a creek and traveling 6 miles to the Buffalo River, or getting into underground water from use as crop fertilizer, are the concerns. Porous subsurface geology is common in Arkansas and nearby states with large numbers of hog farms, yet the type of catastrophic event envisioned by those who are concerned has never occurred.

Because of these issues, the state allocated resources for the University of Arkansas to monitor water quality in tributaries to the Buffalo River and in the river itself. Additionally, fields where manure is spread on crops are being monitored, and leak detection equipment has been installed at the farm’s waste-holding ponds. C&H is cooperating with the state and university.

The most recent University of Arkansas findings of naturally occurring bacteria in local waterways show no indication that C&H has impacted the river. Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent three days on the farm, and its report indicated that nothing noteworthy was found. C&H has been a model farm for the more than a year it’s been operating.

Cargill understands the importance of being environmental stewards who protect and conserve resources used to produce food. Last spring, our Cargill Pork leadership team embarked on an outreach effort in Arkansas and met with many people and organizations to hear from them regarding concerns about the farm.

We listened, and learned about the passion for the Buffalo River. We came away believing all sources impacting Buffalo River water quality, present and future, must be addressed. We are working with C&H to further enhance the environmental safeguards already in place. Synthetic liners and covers will be added to manure ponds; we have implemented a permanent moratorium on hog facility expansion in the watershed, and we support the state’s approach for making decisions based on science and facts.

At Cargill Pork we believe various uses of land, water and other resources can continue to successfully coexist in the Buffalo River watershed, as they have for generations, and we feel it is equally important for people to have the facts.



Mike Luker is president of Cargill Pork.