Legislation targets farms in watersheds

By Ryan McGeeney
This article was published today at 4:33 a.m.

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A bipartisan coalition of Arkansas legislators is trying to curb future permits for large scale, concentrated farming within sensitive watersheds throughout the state.

House Bill 2252, if passed into law, would impose a two-year moratorium on the issuance of concentrated animal feeding operation general permits within the watersheds of the state’s Extraordinary Resource Waters, as defined by the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission. The permits, which follow National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System guidelines, are issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

HB2252 began as a “shell bill” filed by state Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, March 11, the last day to file legislation for the 2013 session. A shell bill is a legislative bill that includes no provisions, but may be amended before being submitted to committee.

Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, last week added temporary language to HB2252 to address permitting within Extraordinary Resource Waters.

“The intention of the amendment is to establish a moratorium on any new [concentrated animal feeding operations] in the Buffalo watershed, with a particular emphasis on hog farms,” Sabin said.

Sabin said the language of the bill is a direct reaction to C&H Hog Farms, a concentrated animal feeding operation now being constructed near Mount Judea in Newton County. The farm, which is permitted to house as many as 6,500 hogs, was the first operation to be granted a confined animal feeding operation general permit by the Department of Environmental Quality in August 2012.

Much of the public outcry over the 670-acre farm, which abuts Big Creek, a major tributary to the Buffalo National River, stemmed from the claim that public notice regarding the potential farm was inadequate. Under state regulations, the department’s only requirement regarding permit application notification is to post the applications on the department website.

At the March meeting of the department’s Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, commission chairman Stan Jorgensen ordered department director Teresa Marks to present notification alternatives to the commission during its April meeting.

“I think everyone in this situation admits the public notice procedures were inadequate,” Sabin said.

Sabin said the bill would not affect the operation of C&H Hog Farms. An attempt to retroactively legislate against alegally-permitted farm would amount to a bill of attainder, which is prohibited under Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.

The bill is scheduled to be introduced today to the Arkansas House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor by Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Yellville.

“This hog farm excited people in my industry - it scared them, frankly,” said Linck, who is also executive director of Ozark Mountain Region Inc., an advertising agency based in Flippin. Linck said that his constituents voiced concerns over the potential damage to business if large amounts of manure entered the Buffalo National River. “They care about the waterway itself, but the damage to tourism based on the waterway would be huge.”

Sabin and Kelley each said that if the bill passes, they would refer the matter of issuing general permits for concentrated animal feeding operations to an interim study committee during the moratorium.

“We want to say, ‘no, we’re not going to do that until we look at it.’ Let’s look at how the process works. I think we missed some things this goround,” Linck said.

Public outcry from both environmental organizations and tourism-based businesses began to mount after Buffalo National River Superintendent Kevin Cheri complained to both the Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Farm Service Agency that not only had he and others been unaware of the permit application, his staff believed that an environmental assessment showing the farm would likely have no significant impact on the river was “deeply flawed.”

Monday, the National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization with about20 regional offices around the country, issued a news release calling for the revocation of C&H Hog Farms’ general permit.

Sabin said his intention was that the finalized bill would specifically address swine operations without affecting current regulations regarding chicken farm operations in Arkansas.

“We specifically avoided including those so as to not impede getting this moratorium passed,” Sabin said. “The consensus seems to be that the moratorium has a good chance of passing because it’s very narrowly defined, and it’s a bipartisan effort.”

Arkansas, Pages 12 on 04/09/2013

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2013

National Parks Conservation Association Calls Permitting Process Flawed for Hog Farm onBuffalo National River Tributary
National Parks Group Urges U.S. Department of Agriculture and Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to Pull Permit

Mt. Judea, Ark. - On March 29th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Agency (FSA) responded to a written request from the National Park Service (NPS) seeking clarity around a permit that was issued earlier this year for a hog farm along Big Creek – a tributary that empties intoBuffalo National River just 5 miles downstream. An analysis of the process by which C & H Hog Farms, Inc. obtained a loan guarantee suggests that the permit was issued without proper consultation of the Park Service – a requirement of the Farm Services Agency for projects located below or above a national river.

“Based upon the Farm Services Agency’s own guidelines, the entire permitting process for the hog farm was flawed and the decision should be thrown out,” said National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) Senior Program Manager Emily Jones. “This hog farm could do real damage to the resources at Buffalo National River. If a proper review was completed, the environmental assessment would have shown the impacts.”

The hog farm would hold as many as 6,500 animals and generate roughly 2 million gallons of waste annually, which could impact the Buffalo River downstream. The operation could harm several endangered or threatened species in the region, including the gray bat and the endangered snuffbox mussel. Under Endangered Species Act regulations, federal agencies must ensure their actions don’t jeopardize the continued existence of listed species. In addition to failing to consult with the Park Service on impacts to the river, the Farm Services Agency did not submit a determination of effects on endangered species to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by law.

The Buffalo National River is America’s first national river. In 2011, over 1 million visitors to the river spent over $38 million in surrounding communities, creating jobs, attending festivals, and supporting local businesses. Canoe and kayak enthusiasts, equestrians, hikers, fisherman, and birders enjoy the 132 mile free flowing river. Elk, deer and turkey, along with more than 300 species of fish, freshwater mussels, insects, and aquatic plants depend on the Buffalo, America’s first National River. A hog farm could jeopardize this economic benefit for the State of Arkansasand impact local communities.

“On behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association’s over 800,000 members and supporters, we call on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to work cooperatively to pull this permit,” said Jones. “Buffalo NationalRiver is a national treasure, and the necessary precautions must be followed to ensure it is protected for future generations.”

Contact: Perry Wheeler, NPCA Senior Media Relations Coordinator, P: 301-675-8766

CAFOs for dummies


Mike Masterson


A war between fact and opinion is waging between the National Park Service and the U.S. Farm Services Agency over the environmental assessment submitted with the loan for that concentrated animal feeding operation on a commercial hog farm in the Buffalo National River watershed near Mount Judea.
Amid the controversy, this CAFO-dummy went searching for what that rural community in Newton County might expect.
But surely the scenario I discovered can’t become as bad in this watershed, especially since the Department of Environmental Quality, our state’s guardians of the precious Buffalo River, granted C&H Farms Inc. a let-’er-rip permit to operate so close to this town of about 500 souls.
It seemed wise to examine Iowa’s experiences since that state raises more hogs on these massive industrial farms than any other.
An extensively footnoted assessment of health, local economies and the environment related to CAFOs was completed several years back by the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University in Iowa.
While Iowa in 2002 still produced roughly the same amount of pork as a century earlier, the number of the state’s smaller hog farmers had plummeted from 59,134 farms in 1978 to 10,205 by 2002. That’s because most of the 17 million Iowa hogs were increasingly being raised in the CAFOs, where thousands of hogs are contained indoors before being shipped to the meat-packing plant.
Corporations that derive economic benefit from CAFOs hail this as the future of agriculture. However, the CAFOs also are causing measurable harm. The assessment reported many problems, including significant amounts of toxic animal waste released into water and air without environmental controls in place, which in turn, appears to be a factor in increased illness rates near CAFO facilities; increased bacterial drug resistance (risking public health) due to routine administration of antibiotics to confined hogs; marked decreases in land values and quality of life near CAFOs; and the decline of small-scale farming and the local economy.
Hog waste contains viruses, parasites and bacteria that can contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans. This waste is often contained in holding cesspools called lagoons, from which it is applied to surrounding land or sprayed into the air on application fields. The air around CAFOs can contain unhealthy concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, inhalable particulates and endotoxins.
Asignificant percentage of employees working in CAFOs reported serious respiratory problems, some attributable to inhaled microbes, as well as headaches and stomach problems. In one study noted in the report, Iowans living in a 2-mile radius of a 4,000-hog facility reported more respiratory and other symptoms than a control group not living near a CAFO. Hydrogen sulfide gas produced by hog waste is known as a potent neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous system. Those exposed to concentrations of even 0.1 to 1 part per million can display symptoms such as abnormal balance and delays in word recall.
The health threats from a hog factory are due to tremendous amounts of manure generated continually in one place and dropped into the anaerobic “pits” that, lacking oxygen, putrefy the matter quickly. One finding said that 10,000 hogs can generate as much daily waste as 25,000 to 50,000 humans. That means 6,500 hogs would equal a city at least the size of nearby Harrison.
According to the institute, University of Iowa scientists in 2006 found that children at schools near CAFOs may be at higher risk for asthma. Students at a school under study a half-mile from a CAFO showed a prevalence of diagnosed asthma in 19.7 percent of cases, while only 7.3 percent from a control school more than 10 miles from the CAFO exhibited asthma. A topographical map shows Mount Judea’s school to be no more than 0.8 of a mile from C&H Farms’ fields as the crow flies.
CAFOs can disrupt quality of life for neighboring residents, the institute noted. “The rural lifestyle, which has always prized outdoor activities and visits from friends and family, is threatened when homeowners need to protect themselves from the air and manure coming from the CAFO. Social capital declines, and deep-seated rifts often arise between CAFOs and their neighbors.”
“Prior to their construction,” the report continues, “CAFOs are often promoted locally through claims that they will bring economic vitality to the area. However, the research conducted after operations begin indicates otherwise. The evidence shows a loss of jobs, depressed property values, loss of income for local businesses, and a huge drain on county resources resulting from CAFOs.”
Since our state’s purported defender of our environment chose to approve this CAFO, please assure me that things here won’t come to resemble Iowa’s experiences … (crickets chirping) … still waiting.
 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Meanwhile, back at the farm


Mike Masterson


In the public dispute over protecting and preserving the Buffalo National River watershed, the corporation behind the controversial industrial hog farm approved near Mount Judea in Newton County has been virtually anonymous.
According to the environmental assessment report filed with the USDA’s Farm Services Agency, the 600-plusacre C&H Hog Farms “will produce hogs for Cargill [Inc.] in up-to-date structures in Newton County.” So now we all know the rest of that story.
The statement adds: “This guaranteed loan [from we the taxpayers] will also benefit the Farm Credit Service of Western Arkansas. FSA’s involvement will negate some of Farm Credit’s risk associated with this loan.”
Topographical maps show the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) with some 6,500 hogs is located near Big Creek, which flows into the Buffalo River about 5 miles downstream. The farm’s boundaries also run 0.8 of a mile from the Mount Judea school as the crow flies.
C&H Farms’ owners and primary beneficiaries are publicly listed as Richard, Mary, Phillip and Julie Campbell, along with Jason and Tara Henson (hence Campbell and Henson Farms). Richard Campbell also is listed as a member of the Newton County Quorum Court whose district includes Mount Judea and the expanse of the farm and its fields.
Documents name Lonnie D. Ewing and Martha Gafford as the FSA officials who prepared and approved the agency’s findings. Ewing told me he helped produce the disputed environmental assessment for the loan and its finding of having “no significant impact” to the environment.
He also acknowledged being married to the former Teresa Campbell of Newton County whom, he added, is “only distantly related” to the Campbell family involved in the farm. He told me he wasn’t certain of their precise familial connections.
Ewing explained he hadn’t seen or associated with members of the Campbell extended family in years before the farm’s loan papers were submitted for his review and approval. Therefore, he perceived having not even a potential conflict of interest in personally managing the environmental assessment.
Newton County Judge Warren Campbell is not listed as having an interest in the farm.
I asked widely respected Ed Fite of Oklahoma, the administrator of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission and a former national leader in state and local river conservation programs, his opinion of Cargill’s decision to back the farm in such an environmentally sensitive location.
“The Cargill folks are most likely building the new farm adhering to all local, state and federal regulations,” he said. “Yet, in the court of public opinion, they’re making a really poor choice. There will be dire ramifications for years to come.
“I just can’t fathom why a company would risk such [a venture]. The Buffalo River is a national natural resources treasure likened to the Grand Canyon. Cargill has made a bad decision,” he added.
Seems to me there are plenty of potential locations across Arkansas for an industrial hog farm other than in the Buffalo River watershed.
Meanwhile, Don Nelms, a politically active businessman living in Newton County who has served on two governors’ staffs (including Mike Beebe’s), said Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Director Teresa Marks told him in a telephone conversation last month that “she wasn’t aware the permit for the C&H CAFO had even been issued until after the fact.”
“I asked Ms. Marks three different times if she knew about this permit for the farm before it was issued, and she answered each time that she did not,” said Nelms. “I had called her because I knew her personally from my position on the governor’s staff and felt like I could speak freely with her. I asked why she hadn’t let me know about this before it was complete.”
Nelms added: “I was shocked. I just couldn’t believe some agency head knew nothing about this kind of industrial farm. Well, in my opinion, she should have known about it and realized there were enough reasons not to do it. She also told me she had no power to stop the permit. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but knowing previous agency heads, I can’t believe that’s true.”
Marks said she had indeed spoken with Nelms. And although she knew about the new general permit for CAFOs issued statewide at the time, the C&H Farms request for a specific permit was a different story.
“I personally was not aware of the [farm’s] notice of intent until after it was filed with the Water Division in our office,” she said. “We receive hundreds of applications each year to proceed under the terms of one or another general permit in the department and the individual notices are normally handled at the division level.”
Marks explained that there was no legal reason for her agency to deny the C&H request since the proposed farm met the requirements and there’s no state law banning CAFOs in the Buffalo River watershed.
I’m still wondering why such a law wasn’t passed years ago, and how our state could have even considered allowing this industrial farm to be permitted in that sacred place many call God’s Country.
All further examples of our gatekeeping government at the highest bureaucratic levels inadequately protecting and preserving the precious natural treasures of Arkansas. Whooo pig!
 
Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/mar/26/buffalo-river-chief-still-hopes-stymie-sw-20130326/

Buffalo River chief still hopes to stymie swine
Official: Pollution-risk report of farm flawed, permit invalid
By Ryan McGeeney


The chief administrator of the Buffalo National River said Monday that he is still hoping to pursue administrative remedies short of requesting an injunction in an attempt to halt the operation of a new hog farm in Newton County.

Kevin Cheri, superintendent of the Buffalo National River, said he plans to meet with Linda Newkirk, director of the Arkansas Farm Services Agency, to discuss the environmental assessment the agency conducted for the site of C&H Farms, a 6,500-animal hog farm to be located along the banks of Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo National River.

Friday, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, the governing body of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality tasked with creating the state’s environmental regulations, heard about two hours of public comment regarding the Environmental Quality Department’s decision to grant a concentrated animal-feeding operation general permit to the farm. The permit is the first to be issued in the state under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems guidelines created by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

While commission chairman Stan Jorgensen recognized that the majority of the comments concerned potential pollution from the farm and accusations that little was done to inform the public of the pending permit, he said both the applicant and Environmental Quality Department had followed all regulations during the permit process.

Cheri, along with representatives of several environmental organizations, have said the environmental assessment of the farm’s potential effect on the air and waterways in the area was so deficient that the permit itself is invalid.

In a letter dated Feb. 27, 2013, Cheri noted 45 discrepancies in the Farm Service Agency’s assessment, a document that Cheri called “exceptionally flawed” Monday.

Newkirk said Monday that her office plans to issue a full response to Cheri’s concerns over the environmental assessment later this week but declined to comment further.

Duane Woltjen, Arkansas director for the Ozark Society, said the group plans to discuss the commission’s decision during its monthly meeting in mid-April, but that legal action is not currently being considered.

“We’re not looking to take them to court, because the administrative process hasn’t been exhausted by any means,” Woltjen said.

Lawsuits filed by private citizens with regard to potential environmental harm have recent precedent in Arkansas. Members of the Hempstead County Hunting Club, along with Arkansas chapters of the Sierra Club and Audubon Society, sued to halt the construction of the John W. Turk Jr. coal-fired electric plant near Fulton in 2009,leading to a series of successive court decisions upholding the Arkansas Court of Appeals’ decision to overturn the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission’s ruling in support of the permit. The parties claimed standing as individuals who could be damaged by pollution from the plant, which is owned by the Southwestern Electric Power Company.

The plaintiffs all reached settlements with SWEPCO in 2011. Although monetary details of SWEPCO’s settlement with the hunting club weren’t disclosed, SWEPCO offered to provide the club funding to help with its conservation efforts, according to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives. SWEPCO also agreed to pay the Sierra Club and Audubon Society $12 million, including $2 million for legal fees.




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Hog farm flub

How’d that happen?
By Mike Masterson
This article was published 3/26/13 at 4:21 a.m.

 
I can’t understand how our state’s Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Agency (FSA) would even consider approving the C&H Farms proposal for a commercial hog farm near Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo National River.

Yet our government agencies did grant the permit and the FSA even used incomplete and inaccurate information in submitting its environmental assessment report concerning potential pollution to the Buffalo.

That’s the bottom line of growing concern here: The likely seep of potent hog-waste pollution from this farm and its fields along Big Creek into America’s first national river flowing just 26,000 feet downstream.

Wasn’t protecting its purity the very reason for declaring the Buffalo a protected national river? Why does the Department of Environmental Quality even exist if not for such circumstances?

I’m no authority on farm animal waste. Yet all I’ve read about the comparisons between the enormous polluting qualities of swine raised in heavy concentrations shocks even me. These hogs are far more prolific polluters than we people. And we have sewage treatment systems.

The National Institutes of Health says contaminants from swine farm wastes can enter the environment through leakage from poorly constructed manure lagoons, or during major rainfalls that cause the lagoons to overflow. There also is the potential runoff from recent applications of waste to farm fields.

There are many contaminants in swine waste, some of which can damage human health. While lagoons can help destroy or reduce many pathogens, it’s clear to me they’re often not enough to stop seepages that contaminate their surroundings.

As for applying hog waste to fields within a couple hundred feet of the Mount Judea school for up to three months a year, the National Park Service, in rebutting the FSA environmental assessment, said: “We also contend that risking pollution of Big Creek with phosphorus is quite controversial since it flows into America’s First National River.”

The Park Service rebuttal letter also said the nutrient management plan submitted for the farm’s loan won’t protect water quality as written because the hog waste contains too much phosphorus for the amount of land. “How can FSA say there will be no impact to water resources without knowing the baseline conditions?” the Park Service asks.

North Carolina is among the nation’s leaders in industrial swine farms, and its environment is paying a price. A 1995 study by North Carolina State University estimated that more than half the manure lagoons on hog farms there were leaking, adding that even without leaks, manure lagoons are so fragile that major storms often result in overflows.

But the waste is but one part of the problem. There’s also the extremely putrid smell that can cover miles. Farm odors cause stress and negative moods in neighboring residents, according to a 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

I’m equally concerned about the way this proposed corporate farm gained the state permit it needed to acquire the loan from a generous Farm Services Agency. There are lots of questions and red flags flapping over and around this ill-advised project.

For example, in the proposed farm’s Notice of Intent filed with the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, it states that the town of Mount Judea is 1.6 miles from the farm’s barn on local roads.

Yet the map accompanying the notice shows a 2,000-foot circle around the farm’s barn with the farm’s waste-dispersal fields touching the banks of Big Creek (widely considered a border to the community of Mount Judea). Which is it? I suspect any pollution from the farm would be following a crow rather than a road.

This is alarming to me, especially since the Park Service says it wasn’t consulted about this farm until after the permit and loan had been approved. That process required the FSA’s environmental assessment form, which the Park Service said contained 45 specific omissions, contradictions and inaccuracies. Who completed and submitted this document? And which federal official accepted and approved it in this form?

I’m wondering why the loan hasn’t already been rescinded and an inquiry launched into the way it was prepared and submitted. If I’d acquired a loan using information that was afterwards shown to be inaccurate, misleading and/or erroneous, the lending agency would be canceling our agreement post-haste and relevant questions would be asked.

What can we do? First, go to the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance website (buffaloriveralliance.org) for many more relevant details than I can provide here.

Then you might email or phone your local legislators. Then you could contact the governor’s office and the Department of Environmental Quality. The USDA Inspector General’s office can be reached at (202) 690-1622.


Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Ozarks at Large March 25 http://www.kuaf.com/content/commission-discusses-swine-farm

News Release

Contact Information: Katherine Benenati / 501.682.0821 / benenati@adeq.state.ar.us

FOR RELEASE: March 22, 2013

ADEQ TO HOLD MEETING IN JASPER ON HOG FARM


The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will hold an informational meeting in Jasper on May 8 to provide information on a permit issued for C & H Hog Farms to operate in Mount Judea.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the Carroll Electric Cooperative building at 511 E Court St., Jasper. ADEQ staff will make a presentation on the permit and will be available to answer questions.
“In recent weeks, we’ve fielded a number of questions on the facility,” ADEQ Director Teresa Marks said. “We want to visit the community to provide information in person and hopefully answer some questions that have been raised about the operation and how our permitting process works.”
The Department granted coverage in August 2012 to C & H Hog Farms under a General Permit for Concentrated Feeding Operations (CAFOs). C & H Hog Farm, which is under construction, is the first facility that sought coverage under the CAFO General Permit and to date is the only facility that has been approved under the General Permit.
The CAFO permit program was the result of a 2003 lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency that required EPA to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations. States that had delegation from EPA for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit programs were required to either adopt the EPA permit or develop their own permit for concentrated animal feeding operations.
ADEQ held six public hearings in 2011 before adopting the General Permit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Such operations include hog farms, dairy farms and poultry farms. A General Permit is a permit that is applicable for a class or category of similar facilities and has specific conditions and requirements that must be met by any facility that seeks coverage pursuant to it.
Information on the facility can be viewed online at www.adeq.state.ar.us. Viewers should first select databases in the blue tab, then select “ADEQ Facility and Permit Summary (PDS).” To pull up the information, viewers can type “C & H” in the facility name and hit search.
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Publication:Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Date:Mar 23, 2013; Section:Northwest Arkansas; Page Number:9


Pollution panel: Improve notices
Hog-farm permit in Buffalo River watershed prompts order
RYAN MCGEENEY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE



Commissioners with the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission ordered Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Director Teresa Marks on Friday to return in April with a plan to improve public notification of pending permits.

The department’s decision to approve a permit for a 6,500-animal hog farm inside the Buffalo National River watershed has drawn criticism from advocates for the Buffalo National River.

The directive, issued by commission Chairman Stan Jorgensen, came after two hours of public comment concerning a confined animal feeding operations general permit that the Environmental Quality Department issued to C&H Farms in Mount Judea. Most of those protesting the permit addressed the potential dangers to the national river and the failure of the department to adequately notify the public that such a permit was under consideration.

At Friday’s meeting, Debbie Doss, conservation chairman for the Arkansas Canoe Club, summarized the complaints of about a dozen others, each of whom cited being taken by surprise by the issuance of the permit, despite being regularly engaged in public-policy participation.

“If no one here knows what’s going on, there’s something wrong with the notification process,” Doss said.

In 2010, the Environmental Quality Department began developing what is known as the “confined animal feeding operations general permit” under the guidelines of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems program authorized by the federal Clean Water Act. The new permit requires operators to establish extensive retaining systems for animal waste and other byproducts, but also allows operators to discharge waste from animal confinement areas into public waterways in the event of extraordinary rainfall.

Between Feb. 11 and March 11, 2011, the department held six public-comment sessions around the state, during which comments from more than a dozen individuals, organizations and corporations were recorded. However, the review process concerned only the new confined animal feeding operations permit and had nothing to do with specific operations such as C&H Farms. The Arkansas confined animal feeding operations general permit became effective Nov. 1, 2011.

C&H Farms was the first entity to apply for the new permit. Owners of the 670-acre farm, which is along the banks of Big Creek, a major tributary of the Buffalo River, completed a notice of intent to apply for the general permit in June 2012. While the notice of intent was posted on the Environmental Quality Department’s website, no further efforts were made to contact area residents or agencies about the permit application.

Interested parties can sign up to receive e-mail notifications from the department when it receives “notice of intent” applications for several kinds of permits, including permits for hazardous waste, solid waste and wastewater. According to department spokesman Katherine Benenati, an e-mail based mailing list that distributes information on applications for water permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems program was added to the site Feb. 19.

In August, the department issued the state’s first confined animal feeding operations general permit to C&H Farms, having received no public comment regarding the proposal.

Public outcry from environmental organizations and business owners who derive their income from tourism along the Buffalo National River began to mount after Kevin Cheri, superintendent of the river, expressed concern to Marks in a letter dated Dec. 20 over the National Park Service not being consulted during the permitting process for C&H Farms.

Marks responded to Cheri’s letter by explaining the history and process of creating the confined animal feeding operations general permit, rather than addressing specific information related to C&H Farms.

Marks told the commission Friday that during the process of gathering public comment on the state’s new general permit, administrators had no way of foreseeing an operation like C&H Farms.

“The problem is, nobody knew at that time that a [confined animal feeding operation] was going to go into the Buffalo River watershed,” Marks said.

“When that came out, that went on our website,” Marks said, referring to the notice regarding C&H Farms. “And that’s what folks are saying they didn’t get. They feel that that was wrong, and I understand what they’re saying.”

Marks said she felt that despite public objections, greater public notice of the C&H Farms permit would not have changed the department’s decision to approve the permit.

“If you don’t want anything going into the Buffalo River watershed, then you need to look at how you can prevent discharges into the Buffalo River watershed. It’s that kind of issue. It’s not a notice issue,” Marks said. “As long as it’s legal for us to permit there, I don’t know how we would have denied this permit based upon what I have heard, because it’s a permitable facility under current law.”

Jorgensen told Marks to formulate a new approach to notifying the public to permit applications for presentation at the commission’s April 15 meeting.

“This process doesn’t work, not well,” Jorgensen said. “In this situation, for sure.”

After the meeting adjourned, Marks said a new process would likely concentrate on alerting county judges on a monthly basis to all new notices of intent that the department receives for affected counties.

Our Buffalo and the hog farm

Mike Masterson


Those in Northwest Arkansas during the late 1990s likely recall the firestorm of public outcry to the state’s politicized decision (eventually reversed) to permit a landfill on one side of Hobbs Mountain near Durham.