New and critical scientific information about the possible release of contamination from hog waste beneath the C&H Hog Farms industrial facility in Mount Judea was recently brought to light at an April 29 meeting of the Commissioners of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (APCEC), according to a press release from the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.
The Alliance says information comes from a study conducted in March 2015 that shows a major fissure and movement of waste under the waste lagoons at C&H Hog Farms, a progression that that has now likely been ongoing for over one year. The presence of the concentrated animal feeding operation housing up to 6,500 swine near a tributary to the Buffalo National River has been hotly contested by members of the Buffalo River Coalition, concerned Arkansans and many out-of-state visitors who enjoy the pristine waters of Arkansas’ crown jewel.
“It will be a sad day if what appears to be a substantial discharge of swine waste into groundwater proves to be true and that state agencies and the public were not informed,” said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “It’s a damn shame that, in spite of ongoing warnings from the public, damage must be done before those in charge of protecting our state resources will take notice."
The study, completed by Oklahoma State University in collaboration with the Big Creek Research and Extension Team (BCRET), involves Electrical Resistivity images recorded at depths of more than 100 feet below the ground. The Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI) technology laid bare geological structures in the substrate, such as possible fractures, flow paths, and bedrock. Emails obtained by the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA) under the Freedom of Information Act in January 2016 revealed that members of the state-funded study by BCRET were fairly confident that a “major fracture and movement of waste” beneath the ponds was suggested by the data. BRWA requested and received the raw technical data collected during the ERI testing.
“Reading those emails raised all kinds of flags for us,” said Buffalo River Watershed Alliance Board member Dane Schumacher. “With Arkansas’ crown jewel at stake, why was this information unavailable to the public for a year?”
To clarify the magnitude and meaning of the evidence, independent opinions from two expert geologists were sought. Dr. Christopher Liner, a geophysicist at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville concluded that “the holding pond data implies ground water contamination to a depth of at least 120 ft., most logically from leakage of the hog manure storage ponds.” Thomas Aley, a noted hydrogeologist specializing in natural resource management of karst (porous underground) regions, concurred saying that “the data strongly suggest that there is appreciable leakage downward out of the manure ponds. Such leakage not only introduces pollutants into the groundwater system but in this karst setting may also lead to subsidence or collapse of the ponds.”
“It is certainly alarming that swine waste may have been leaking into the ground and groundwater to a depth of 120 feet or more, with little or no filtration, for more than a year,” said Jack Stewart, Vice President of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. “It is doubly alarming that this potentially disastrous discharge of waste was not brought to the attention of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) or the Commission, until private citizens uncovered the information and made it public.”
In comments made at the APCEC meeting, former U.S. Congressman Ed Bethune said: “Taxpayers were assured that the research would be independent and that the goal was to protect the public interest… Now… we learn that the director of ADEQ and the PC&E Commission were not told about the OSU findings…. In my experience, bureaucracies are unwilling to divulge findings and information that is contrary to the outcome they prefer.... There should be an effort to find out who knew what and when did they know it.”
The permit granted by ADEQ in 2012 to C&H Hog Farms allows for some amount of waste leakage from the waste storage ponds, but the permit was issued with no consideration given to the possible existence of porous karst that allows direct transmission of any leakage into the groundwater, springs and ultimately into the Buffalo River. In fact, environmental assessments that enabled the permit were based on the conclusion that the swine facility site does not exhibit karst hydrogeology, a conclusion that turns a blind eye to the overwhelming scientific consensus and comments of the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to the contrary.
The BRWA has contended from the outset that a thorough environmental assessment of the facility would have confirmed what professional geologists have stated: fractured and porous limestone formations underlie the entire Ozark Plateau, which includes the Mount Judea area. In light of the new evidence of underground hog waste leakage, the Buffalo River Coalition — which includes the Ozark Society, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Arkansas Canoe Club, and the National Parks Conservation Association — is asking that C&H Hog Farms operations are halted until an investigation can evaluate possible damage or risk of damage. In addition, the Coalition requests that BCRET be instructed to promptly and fully disclose to ADEQ and the public any and all evidence that it may now or in the future have of any release or potential for release from the facility.
“We are looking for APCEC and ADEQ to take prompt action, order a thorough investigation, and ensure that corrective and protective measures are implemented before further damage is done,” said Buffalo River Watershed Alliance Board member Ginny Masullo. “The health of the Buffalo National River and certainly Arkansas citizens should benefit from the highest levels of protection. Anything less is just plain negligence.”
May 11, 2016
Lin Wellford – On Friday, April 29, the Arkansas Dept. of Pollution Control and Ecology commission met in Little Rock. I was there to make a formal comment questioning the wisdom of allowing C&H Hog Farms to spread hog manure on an additional 600 acres within the Buffalo River watershed when water tests of tributaries already show some disturbing trends. In under three years all but one of the pastures currently receiving this so-called “nutrient” are now above optimum levels for phosphorus which will run off, feed algae and deplete oxygen.
The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA) was there to make a Power Point presentation. What they revealed had us all stunned. For more than a year, the U of A research team has known that there was evidence of a massive movement of waste beneath the facility. It was discovered when a team from the Oklahoma State University was contracted to do Electrical Resistance Imaging (ERI) to determine if there were karst underlying pastures where waste was being spread. (You may recall that two different out-of-state firms proclaimed there was “no evidence of karst” in environmental assessments, to the wonderment of geologists around the region.)
While the ERI team was there, a member asked Jason Henson, who is running C&H Hog Farms, if he’d like to have them test around the waste lagoons. Jason agreed. That test revealed a broad flow channel, as well as a huge accumulation of what is likely waste, some 120 feet deep. I say “likely” because the only way to know for sure is to drill a well down into it.
The OSU team apparently offered to drill such a test well for free. We know this only because members of the BRWA used the Freedom of Information Act to request reports and communications having to do with the Big Creek study since so little data had been forthcoming, and it is a taxpayer-funded study. There is no record of the offer to drill being accepted, by the way.
Charles Moulton, legal council for the commission, questioned Becky Keogh, current head of ADEQ about the decision to drop the Reg. 6 general permit and not renew it for C&H. C&H had already applied to switch to a Reg. 5 permit. Moulton noted that board members had been told in 2011 by Teresa Marks, the former ADEQ head, that the board needed to approve the new, streamlined Reg. 6 permit (the one that made it so quick and easy for a 6500-head hog CAFO to get a permit without the public getting wind of it) because the EPA was adopting a similar permit and Arkansas needed to be aligned with their federal permit. Only the EPA never did adopt it.
So now it turns out, the ADEQ just wants to forget the whole thing. A Reg. 5 permit requires much more stringent site studies and assessment up front than the Reg. 6 one. But once in operation, a Reg. 5 is a lot easier. No more pesky public hearings every time there is a need to make a change in their “state-of the art” facility or their professionally designed nutrient management plan.
I’m not big on conspiracy theories, but it surely does seem that there has been some clever choreography going on here. As taxpayers, we are funding the Big Creek Research and Extension Team. And we’re paying the salaries of the employees of ADEQ to protect our resources.
It’s time the governor steps in and stops this song and dance! If you agree, or want to know more, there will be a free informational program on May 26, at 7 p.m. at the UU Church, 17 Elk Street. Dr. Van Brahana will present data on his independent karst study and Still on the Hill will sing new Buffalo songs. Come early to write letters to the Guv or sign petitions.
Arkansasonline
Findings raise questions By Mike Masterson How's it possible that Oklahoma State University geologist Todd Halihan discovered likely evidence of raw hog waste seeping deep into the karst-laden subsurface and groundwater beneath the hog factory at Mount Judea without state environmental agencies, the governor and Arkansans learning of it for a year? How could the Big Creek Research and Extension Team from the University of Arkansas and the Cooperative Extension Service retain Halihan, yet fail to post the scientist's results on the team's website until late last month? After all, the only reason it was formed was because former Gov. Mike Beebe ensured public money was appropriated to protect the Buffalo National River watershed from contamination by raw waste created by C&H Hog Farms. So many questions swirl today around this issue that became public at a meeting of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission just the other day. And now the entire state knows Halihan conducted tests in March 2015 to identify what independent experts concur is evidence of fractures and waste leaking into multiple areas as deep at 120 feet beneath two waste lagoons and barns that contain up to 6,500 swine. Since Halihan offered to assist in getting drilling tests done for free to confirm his electrical resistivity imaging studies, why wasn't his offer accepted immediately last year? Has anyone responsible for environmental quality insisted on such drilling? If not, why the heck not? Don't the research team, the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, the Department of Environmental Quality, the governor and we the people who are paying for all this supposed environmental "protection" want to know the truth of what's transpiring beneath this factory? I'd sure like to know. I asked Gordon Watkins, who heads the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, one in a coalition of concerned Buffalo River advocate groups, for his thoughts. He responded: "It's unclear if/how [the Big Creek team] and OSU planned to release the pond data ... since January we've sent multiple FOIA requests for the data to [Environmental Quality], U of A and OSU so they knew we were aware of the problem. "Watershed Alliance board members drove to Stillwater on April 3 to meet with Halihan, and he showed them the images and said he'd already sent them to Professor Andrew Sharpley [head of the Big Creek team]; they again FOIA'd the U of A for the data but were stalled," said Watkins. "We were told the data was too voluminous to email to us and they were in the process of posting it to [their] website. "But we wanted the data for the ... meeting on April 30, so we then contacted Halihan, who sent the data directly to us via email with no problems," Watkins continued. "We posted it on our Alliance website. The next day the same data appeared on the [research team's] site." Oh my, such a coincidence. I'm not nearly skeptical enough to believe the Big Creek folks hurried to finally post the results one day after the Alliance did after having the information, presumably, since March 2015. Neither the research team nor OSU have yet to offer any explanation for what Halihan's findings actually mean, Watkins said. Now, I'm no member of any agriculture-oriented research and "extension" team. But I believe through applying whole-hog common sense, I'll opine as follows on Halihan's findings. If someone gathers the willpower to conduct the inexplicably neglected test drillings in areas identified by Halihan's research, I believe they'll confirm what the findings suggest: lots of raw hog waste infiltrating the karst and groundwater beneath C&H Hog Farms. What would that confirm? That our state's Department of Environmental Quality (cough) made a phenomenally bad decision by issuing this factory a permit in such a sensitive region. Perhaps no one has drilled there because what they're likely to find also would support what karst expert John Van Brahana and his diligent team of volunteer researchers have been saying for two years now. Now that would be a fine kettle of poisoned fish, wouldn't it? Now that such crucial information has been made public, I again lay the matter of preserving the purity of our national treasure at the feet of Gov. Asa Hutchinson. His predecessor, Governor Mike Beebe, publicly said his biggest regret in office was allowing this hog factory to be permitted in the watershed, adding that he didn't even know it was happening. I'm hoping the governor will closely review these findings, and order testing to either confirm or reject Halihan's findings along with a credible analysis of how much waste already has leaked and the nature of possible damage to the watershed and the Buffalo flowing less than seven miles downstream. It's unimaginable that the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality were not made aware of Halihan's critical findings. How do you feel about these latest developments, Mr. and Mrs. taxpaying and voting Arkansas? ------------v------------ Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com. Editorial on 05/07/2016
Greenwire
Marc Heller, E&E reporter
An Arkansas hog farm that has long been under the scrutiny of environmentalists may be leaking waste into the Buffalo National River, a group aiming to shut the facility said yesterday.
The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance said ongoing tests by university researchers appear to indicate an underground breach in waste ponds at C&H Hog Farm Inc., a 6,500-swine operation in Mount Judea.
The group said it obtained correspondence between federal regulators and the researchers through the Freedom of Information Act that shows some preliminary results.
One of the researchers found evidence of a "major fracture and movement of waste" from testing based on a substance's differing resistance to electricity, known as electrical resistivity, according to an Oct. 16, 2015, email from a U.S. Geological Survey water specialist to a leader at the University of Arkansas' Big Creek Research and Extension Team.
The tests reach as far as 100 feet below ground level, about the depth researchers say they may see evidence of waste moving.
Team leader Andrew Sharpley said their next step was to verify the possible leak and to check whether signs of waste movement are connected to other factors such as changing seasons. The study could last at least five years to ensure accurate findings, he said.
"We want to be sure before we say something," Sharpley said.
The hog farm has given researchers from the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University access to the facility for the study.
C&H was involved in litigation related to the Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration. A federal judge ruled in 2014 that the agencies approved a financing arrangement without a proper environmental impact review. The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance was one of the plaintiffs in the case (Greenwire, Dec. 3, 2014).
C&H Farms operates the facility through a contract with JBS USA Holdings Inc., the U.S. component of the largest animal protein company in the world. A JBS spokesman had no comment yesterday.
In general, pork producers are "subject to detailed regulation and are leading the nationwide effort to develop additional, science-based regulations" dealing with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), said the National Pork Producers Council on its website.
"Pork producers share the concerns of all citizens for the protection of the natural resources and are committed to the best management of their pork operations," said the council.
If further testing confirms an underground leak, the next step would be a cleanup of contaminated groundwater, said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance.
Ultimately, he said, the alliance believes the topography of the area -- with fractured and porous limestone formations -- provides a risky setting for CAFOs.
By Mike Masterson
This article was published today at 2:29 a.m.
The year's most significant meeting of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission occurred last Friday in Little Rock.
Most Arkansans would agree as they learn the alarming news Richard Mays presented there. Mays was representing the Buffalo River Coalition opposed to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) issuing the permit that allowed C&H Hog Farms to begin spreading millions of gallons of raw waste into the Buffalo National River watershed at Mount Judea.
The coalition was there to alert commissioners and the state of evidence collected over a year ago by Dr. Todd Halihan of Oklahoma State University.
Working under contract with the Big Creek Research and Extension Team and the Cooperative Extension Service, Halihan used electrical resistivity imaging in March 2015 to show what Mays said is "evidence that there has been and continues to be a possible release of contamination beneath the C&H hog farm."
Using slides from Halihan's study, Mays explained how hog waste could be shown through technology. The waste reflects a particular level of electrical conductive signature, which can be charted in colors. Halihan's studies were conducted on waste-spray fields and beneath the facility.
The slides used at Mays' presentation, which appear to reveal contamination as deep as 120 feet beneath the factory, should have been enough to upset any commissioner learning of it for the first time.
Halihan's slides indicating contamination reportedly show high conductivity signals extending 40 feet beneath the surface on the east side of the waste holding ponds and 60 feet deep (along with a possible flow channel) on their southern end. On the west side, between the ponds and barns, the signals measure to 90 feet, and reveal a possible "major fracture and movement of waste," in a quote attributed to Dr. Halihan.
In October, Tim Kresse, with the U.S. Geological Survey and member of the Big Creek team, sent an email to team leader Dr. Andrew Sharpley, saying in part: "... it would be nice to put a well on the west side in the vicinity of where Todd believed he saw a major fracture and movement of waste. This could be critical to resolving the interpretation of the resistivity data. Todd would be willing to assist in getting the drilling done for free. ... Todd is fairly confident of his interpretation."
Mays told commissioners that because neither OSU nor the Big Creek team "offered any further explanation of this concerning information, the Alliance sought independent expert opinions. One was Dr. Christopher Liner, a University of Arkansas geophysicist."
Liner said: "In my opinion, interpretation of the holding pond data implies groundwater contamination to a depth of at least 120 feet, most logically from leakage of the hog manure storage pond. According to the Arkansas state geology map, the Mount Judea area is underlain by the Mississippian Boone limestone formation. This introduces the possibility of rapid and distant groundwater transport through weathered limestone pathways."
The coalition also turned to respected geologist Tom Aley, who said the data "are a matter of significant concern. The data strongly suggest that there is appreciable leakage downward out of the manure ponds. Such leakage not only introduces pollutants into the groundwater system but in this karst setting may also lead to subsidence or collapse of the ponds. At a minimum the data indicate that an adequate drilling program is needed prior to the installation of a liner in the ponds. Such a program is in the interest of C&H Hog Farm, various state and federal agencies and those people and groups concerned with the protection of the Buffalo National River."
This information only reinforces the concerns of many Arkansans who treasure the Buffalo that all relevant facts have not been made public. It certainly further shakes whatever lingering remnants of faith I had that our state government has the best interest of our national river's well-being at heart.
Former Second District Rep. Ed Bethune also spoke. He said former Gov. Mike Beebe and the Legislature approved monies to create the Big Creek team project that supposedly would objectively monitor the hog factory.
"Taxpayers were assured that the research would be independent and that the goal was to protect the public interest," he stated. "Now we learn OSU did a study over a year ago that raises important questions. And we learn that the director of [the Department of Environmental Quality] and you, the PC&E Commission, were not told about the OSU findings. OSU gave the information to the Big Creek Research group, but they did not tell you about it. Why?
"In my experience, bureaucracies are unwilling to divulge findings and information that is contrary to the outcome they prefer. ... [You] should be outraged. There should be an effort to find out 'who knew what and when did they know it.'"
The governor also needs answers.
------------v------------
By Emily Walkenhorst
The Florida company planning to vaporize manure at a Mount Judea hog farm will test the equipment but will not permanently install it, the company president said last week.
Plasma Energy Group will test the technology at C&H Hog Farms over a 60-day period later this year to gather data on air emissions related to the plasma arc pyrolysis vaporizing technology, company President Murry Vance said. The company could then use that data if it tried to sell its product to another hog facility that might need an air permit to install it, Vance said.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality would oversee the testing, he said.
C&H Hog Farms doesn't have enough hogs to produce enough waste to break even if it invested in the technology, Vance said.
"We thought it was marginal, probably, from the beginning," Vance said. "They were willing to use it even though it wasn't economical."
For the technology to make economic sense, Vance said, a facility would need to house about 5,000 sows and already be spending about $200,000 annually on hog waste.
C&H, a large, concentrated animal-feeding operation, is permitted to house up to 2,500 sows and 4,000 piglets at a time on its land on Big Creek, 6 miles from where it meets the Buffalo National River.
Plasma arc pyrolysis typically involves the conversion of material into synthetic gas. In the case of C&H, Vance has said the waste won't be turned into synthetic gas because the quantity of material won't be large enough. The method proposed for the C&H farm would break down the hog waste and vaporize it using an electron discharge and some heat, then condense the water vapor into "semi-pure" water that is put back into the plant.
An official with C&H Hog Farms did not return voice mails left for him. An official with JBS, which supplies hogs to C&H Hog Farms, did not return voice mails left for him.
Jason Henson, one of three owners of C&H Hog Farms, had previously told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the owners were pursuing the technology because of its potential to reduce hog waste on the facility's property, which might appeal to environmental groups concerned about the hog waste at C&H.
Environmental groups were not happy with the proposal, which they called "experimental" and "risky," posing a threat to the Buffalo National River.
Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, said he wasn't surprised to hear that the technology would not be installed permanently at C&H.
"One of our first reactions was that it was not economically feasible," he said.
C&H Hog Farms, which environmental groups say poses a threat to the water quality of the Buffalo River with the amount of hog waste stored on-site and applied to land, has proposed various changes to its facility to assuage the groups' concerns.
C&H started talking to Plasma Energy Group about plasma arc pyrolysis technology in 2014. The Department of Environmental Quality warned Plasma Energy Group in October 2014 that testing the technology could result in enforcement action if the technology resulted in gas discharges that would require an air permit.
The department had been unable to determine whether Plasma Energy Group needed an air permit because it did not receive enough data from the company on projected gas discharges from vaporizing hog waste. The company had vaporized some materials before but hadn't done so with hog waste until it did some testing last summer at Sandy River Farm in Conway County.
About a year ago, C&H officials applied to the Department of Environmental Quality to add covers on the hog waste lagoons that would capture gas emitted from them and then send it through an upward pipe to flare and burn it.
Earlier this year, Ellis Campbell, a farmer in Newton County, asked the Department of Environmental Quality for permission to apply up to 6.6 million gallons of hog manure from C&H on nearly 600 acres of his farm fields in the county. That would allow C&H to reduce the volume of hog waste on its site and stay within its permit.
The Buffalo National River -- the country's first national river -- is a popular tourist spot, with more than 1.3 million visitors in 2014 who spent about $56.5 million at area businesses, according to National Park Service data.
Small hog farms have existed in the Buffalo River watershed for years, but C&H is the first large-scale hog facility in the watershed.
Last summer, the state imposed a five-year ban on new medium or large hog farms in the watershed.
Pollution board: End permits how?
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will look into how it can discontinue the farm permitting program that it announced Thursday it would no longer offer, department Director Becky Keogh said Friday.
Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission asked Keogh at the commission's monthly meeting Friday whether the department would pursue a rule-making effort to remove the permit from its established regulations.
Currently, Moulton said, Regulation 6 provides for the statewide general permit for concentrated animal feeding operations.
Changing regulations requires the initiation of rule-making by the commission, which then sends the change out for public comment and review by the governor's office and the Legislature, and then it must vote on final adoption of the regulation change.
The department announced Thursday that it would no longer offer the statewide general permit under Regulation 6, which refers to the federal pollutant discharge program, after receiving only one application for it since its creation in 2011. That application came from C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea, which received approval.
Moulton said that in 2011 the commission was told that the permit would be necessary to get the state on par with the federal government's less strict permitting process. The permit was designed to mirror a proposed similar permit by the federal government that would be less stringent and would cut down on paperwork and make the permitting process easier.
But the federal government never implemented that type of permit, Keogh said, which made the state's version unnecessary.
Keogh's and Moulton's exchange was a small part of a more than two-hour meeting Friday that consisted of comments denouncing the department's approval of C&H Hog Farms' permit application in 2012, which many argued at the time was done without adequate public input.
Several who commented urged the department on Friday to look into whether the hog waste ponds at C&H Hog Farms are leaking into the terrain in the Buffalo National River watershed. Newly obtained research has caused them to suspect that the ponds are leaking.
Listen: KUAF Radio - Ozarks At Large
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality To End Federal CAFO Permits
By JACQUELINE FROELICH • APR 29, 2016
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will no longer issue federal Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permits in Arkansas. The agency cites a lack of applicants as the reason for its decision. State-enforced CAFO permitting rules, however, will remain in place.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will discontinue the type of general permit that allowed a large hog farm to open in the Buffalo River watershed, the department announced Thursday.
After receiving only one application for the Regulation 6 general permit for concentrated animal feeding operations in more than four years, the department decided not to renew that type of permit.
C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea is the only concentrated animal feeding operation with such a permit in the state and the only one to have ever applied for it.
The lack of interest in the permitting program was the primary reason department director Becky Keogh decided not to renew it.
"In this case, we don't see that it's [renewal is] necessary, because we haven't had the use that we ... expected," Keogh said.
The general permit was created in 2011 to mirror a federal permitting program that speeds the permitting process for such operations, she said.
Keogh said public comments questioning the necessity of the program were "critical" to her decision to close the program.
The department initially recommended renewal of the permit and held a public hearing in Jasper earlier this month, where the National Park Service opposed the plan. Chuck Bitting, the service's manager of the natural resource program for the Buffalo National River, argued the permit had been changed to allow for less public notice than before and would be detrimental to water quality.
The department received more than 100 comments on the issue, many in opposition to renewal.
C&H's operating permit expires Oct. 31. The owners applied last week for an individual permit under Regulation 5 and for a renewal of their current permit under Regulation 6. Both regulations concern discharge of pollutants from facilities, but Regulation 5 concerns a statewide program and Regulation 6 concerns a federal one. Regulation 6 includes an individual and general permit.
The decision not to renew the general permit will not have any immediate impact on C&H, and law allows for a facility to continue operating under an expired permit if the department decides not to renew that type of permit.
Because the facility only just applied for the permits and department staff haven't fully reviewed the documents or any requested modifications yet, Keogh said, it's difficult to say what will happen to C&H's applications later this year.
General permits are meant to cut down on paperwork and make the permitting process easier. But environmentalists argue they made the process too easy for C&H, which they fear may pollute the Big Creek tributary to the Buffalo National River. The facility abuts Big Creek six miles from where it meets the river.
There is a short waiting period for a general permit compared with "individual permits," which can take six months or longer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Clean Water Act prohibits anybody from discharging "pollutants" through a "point source" into a "water of the United States" unless such a "discharger" has a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
An individual permit is unique to a specific discharger. The individual permit is normally written to reflect site-specific conditions of a single discharger based on information submitted by that entity, according to the EPA.
A general permit is written to cover multiple dischargers with similar operations and types of discharges based on the permit writer's professional knowledge of those types of activities and discharges, according to the EPA.
Rob Anderson, spokesman for the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said the organization was reviewing the situation and did not have a comment Thursday.
The decision not to renew the permit was "a good first step" in changing the permitting process, said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, which was created in opposition to C&H's establishment.
Metro on 04/29/2016