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.