Explanation of karst

This writer is a retired engineer peacefully living out his life on rural acreage near Mena. I have no dog in the hog farm hunt, nor do I belong to any environmental groups. But I have had considerable firsthand experience in dealing with underlying karst formations when designing and building cement mills and other heavy industrial plants.

In layman's terms, karst can best be compared to the ant farm my sons had as children. Visualize a series of cracks, fissures and voids beneath a surface that otherwise shows little indication of such. Pour liquid on the surface of that ant farm and it soon finds its way to the bottom. Such is the case with karst, except there is no bottom for containment. Instead, it finds its way to an underlying aquifer or otherwise manifests itself through springs or seeps. Once karst is contaminated, the damage cannot be remediated except by the flushing action of time.

Major aquifers in other states are fed by karst, and regulations for industry are stringent to avoid contamination. Industrial leakage is not tolerated. Such should have been the case here. Operating this facility "as is, where is" is potentially dangerous to any and all who are downstream.

TED BROWN

Mena