Intrigue surrounding the 6,500 hog factory farm permitted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) in the Buffalo River Watershed continues. The plot thickens as Mr. Ellis Campbell (EC FARM) has requested a permit to receive up to 6.5 million gallons per year of hog urine and feces from the Campbell and Henson (C&H) 6,500-hog factory farm. This waste will be applied to approximately 600 acres, some of which is in the Little Buffalo watershed, at the head of Shop Creek and the head of the East Fork of the Little Buffalo River.
On the surface one might think that spreading the waste around on more acreage further up from the Buffalo River is at least better than applying it to less acreage. Looks can be deceiving in the sensitive karst terrain of this region where groundwater can flow as far as 2,500 ft. a day.
At a public meeting on April 11 in Jasper by the ADEQ public concerns on this transfer of waste from C&H to EC Farms were voiced. A list of concerns is readily viewed on the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance’s website.
Why C& H, that will have to bear the expense of trucking the waste and expense and responsibility for any spills over the rocky circuitous transport route, wants to pursue this avenue might best be answered by looking at a timeline:
- 2012 C& H: Nutrient Management Plan good to go for the C&H acreage. Public is told that the spraying fields of C&H can handle the two million plus gallons of hog waste applied there as fertilizer, that there will be no contamination to the Buffalo River watershed.
- 2013: In response to public outcry and concerns about potential contamination of Big Creek and Buffalo River, Gov. Beebe sets up taxpayer funded study, The Big Creek Research Extension (BCRET), to monitor effects of swine feeding operation on the Buffalo River.
- 2014: Elevated e.coli found in Big Creek by BCRET. Elevated e. coli and low levels of dissolved oxygen found by National Park Service suggest impairment of Big Creek.
- 2015 and early 2016: National Park Service and Arkansas Game & Fish request Big Creek be placed on 303(d) list of impaired streams. ADEQ declines to do so despite robust data from credible sources.
- According to recent soil tests most of the current C&H spreading fields along Big Creek are above optimum levels of phosphorus.
- 2015 and now: EC farm application to Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to receive swine waste from C&H to be applied to more fields existing further up in the Buffalo River watershed.
Now back around to 2012: The public was assured by the ADEQ that the C&H spray field acreage would be sufficient to handle at least three million gallons of waste a year.
Maybe things “ain’t a-working” as well as we were guaranteed. How long before these new fields reach saturation and once again the ADEQ appears to be giving no consideration to karst terrain?
Spreading waste on more fields simply exchanges one set of problems for another. The ADEQ has a responsibility to the people of Arkansas and to C&H, which appears to have been poorly advised by the ADEQ.
Such a facility should never have been permitted in this sensitive and unpredictable karst terrain. ADEQ needs to admit its mistake of permitting this facility under any regulation.
Ginny Masullo