Anyone who has recently floated northeast Oklahoma's Illinois River very well knows it's not the sparkling stream of generations past. The once clear, free-flowing waters are impaired, largely due to phosphorus runoff from chicken litter spread on fields around large Arkansas chicken farms.
But the Illinois is not the only imperiled river in the Ozark Plateau. The crown jewel of Arkansas, America's first national river, is now being threatened by a combination of regulations and permitting procedures that allow factory farms without considering the environment or the well-being of citizens.
The Buffalo River is a 135-mile national river that carves its way through the mountains of north Arkansas. More than a million people each year float its crystal waters, camp on its banks and hike its trails. Hundreds of thousands of those visitors travel from Oklahoma, Missouri, and surrounding states, sharing our regional heritage.
Without much fanfare, notification, or scrutiny, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has granted a permit for a factory farm on a major tributary of the Buffalo. The concentrated animal feeding operation of 6,500 pigs is located on the banks of Big Creek just a few miles upstream from the Buffalo River. The operation is owned by C&H Hog Farms of Newton County. C&H is under contract to Cargill, a huge international agricultural and food conglomerate, which owns the pigs.
How did we get here, especially after witnessing the plight of the Illinois? Unlike Oklahoma and most states, Arkansas has minimal notification requirements. ADEQ simply placed a notice on its website for 30 days. The permitting process flew under the radar, and Arkansans didn't discover what had happened until nine months after the fact.
The factory farm, operational for the past year, sits atop porous ground in a karst geological area. The hog farm will produce more than two million gallons of hog waste each year (that's 8,500 tons), which will be held in clay-lined ponds and spread over fields, many of which are flood-prone. While some of the contaminants will be absorbed by field grasses, much will reach the Buffalo River.
More than a generation ago, Arkansans with their elected representatives joined hands to protect and preserve one of the last free-flowing rivers in the lower 48 states. In 1972, the heart and soul of Arkansas, became a national river and was placed under the stewardship of all Americans.
Today, we are joining forces again to protect this national treasure. The Ozark Society, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Arkansas Canoe Club and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance are working together to correct a grave mistake and preserve the legacy passed down to us by our parents and grandparents.
For more than a decade, Oklahoma has battled Arkansas over the phosphorus from chicken litter flushed down the Illinois River. We in the Ozarks who canoe, camp, hike, float and fish have supported your efforts. We hope our neighbors will do the same in our fight.
The hog farm in the Buffalo River watershed is the first, but if the permit is allowed to stand it won't be the last. The future of other Arkansas rivers is at stake, including those flowing to other states.
Arkansas is known throughout the country for its natural beauty, clear lakes and streams and abundance of natural wildlife. The Buffalo River is the heart of this bounty. We will not stand by and allow our river (your river) to lose the life it gives all of us.

Robert Cross is president of the The Ozark Society and lives in Fayetteville, Ark. www.ozarksociety.net, www.buffaloriveralliance.org