GILBERT — The stretch of the Buffalo National River from Grinder’s Ferry to Gilbert is an easy float for Monty Smith to handle.
Smith, a Conway resident who said he had been canoeing for more than 25 years, purchased the Silver Hill Float Service from a longtime friend about four years ago and has spent most days since building the business, replacing old canoes and serving as many paddlers as he can.
But as he paddled from the stern of a 15-foot canoe Tuesday morning, Smith said he’s worried about the future of his business and dozens like it because of the possibility of the river becoming contaminated with agricultural waste.
“I think there’s the first time there’s a proven pollution problem, where the river’s closed down, for whatever reason, by whatever entity, that that’s obviously going to do irreparable damage to the tourism industry up here on the Buffalo River,” Smith said. “I’m sure that ‘overnight’ is an exaggeration, but I’d say probably within a season.”
Silver Hill was hired Tuesday to facilitate a day-long media junket organized by the National Parks Conservation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy organization. The association joined several Arkansas groups in 2013 in opposing the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s 2012 decision to grant an operational permit to C&H Hog Farms, a large-scale concentrated animal-feeding operation in Mount Judea. The farm abuts Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from its confluence with the Buffalo National River.
The farm has a permit to have about 2,500 sows, and as many as 4,000 piglets at one time. Owners Jason Henson, Richard Campbell and Philip Campbell are contracted with Cargill Inc. to provide pigs for pork products.
Emily Jones, a senior project manager with the association, said the purpose of Tuesday’s event, which drew about a dozen reporters and photographers, was to illustrate what is at stake in the area.
“It just helps people to better understand how important it is to protect this particular place,” Jones said. “Of course it’s got the protections that a national park is afforded, but you have to really feel these places in your heart.”
In early 2013, environmental organizations — including the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society and the Arkansas Canoe Club — began voicing concerns that animal waste from the farm could pollute the surface water and groundwater that feeds into the Buffalo National River.
While the farm’s permit allows its operators to spread pig manure over approximately 630 acres of grassland surrounding the farm, critics have warned that the permit ignores the underlying geology and the fact that much of the soil in the area is already saturated with phosphorus, a key component of hog waste.
Protests against the farm have drawn increasing attention at the state and national levels, and local residents have found themselves in a difficult situation, Smith said.
“That’s a lot of the struggle. A lot of the people who work for me are local people. So they, of course, have a little bit different take on this thing. They’re from here, born here, raised here,” Smith said. “I agree that people should be able to do whatever they want to with their land. I believe that. But this is something that just seems a little irresponsible. It could impact a much bigger piece of what’s going on.”
In 2012, more than a million visitors to the Buffalo National River spent nearly $44 million with area restaurants and vendors, according to a National Parks Service report released in March. The river spans nearly 150 miles through Northwest Arkansas, and vendors who depend on the river for business have voiced concern that if nutrients or bacteria from the hog waste are detected at any point in the river, the economic effects could be far-reaching.
“If nothing ever happens, it’s not a problem. But if it does happen, it’s all at once going to be something big,” Smith said.
Another aspect of the farm protests has been the odors commonly associated with agricultural and animal waste. In January, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance sent three-month calendars to every residential address in the Mount Judea area as part of its “Stop the Stink” campaign.
Gordon Watkins, president of the alliance, said recipients were encouraged to mark every day on the calendar when manure odor could be detected and report their results to either the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or to the alliance.
Watkins said several residents had contacted him privately about odors but were unwilling to attach their names to a public complaint.
“What we’re finding is that people are reluctant to speak out,” Watkins said. “They’re very sensitive to many of the issues, as you can imagine. Mount Judea is a very small, very tight community. There are strong relations throughout the community, so people are reluctant to speak out, even though they have strong feelings about the issues. We’re trying to be sensitive to that.”
Pam Fowler, a Mount Judea resident, said the odor was often so overwhelming that she and her 88-year-old mother, Jewell Fowler, could not stay outdoors for long.
“I can smell it all the time,” Fowler said. “It’s sort of a uriny, dog-food smell. And sometimes, it’s a heavy, no-doubt-about-it pig smell.”
Fowler, whose mother lives near the eastern bank of Big Creek, about a mile downstream of the C&H Hog Farms production facility, said she had filed several complaints with the Environmental Quality Department regarding the odor from the fields.
“It is ruining everything about our way of life there,” Fowler said. “Most people that live in the country live there because they enjoy the outdoors. They spend a lot of time outdoors. And this is just ruining that for us. I can smell it all the time.”
Environmental Quality Department spokesman Katherine Benenati said that since January of this year, department inspectors have investigated two odor complaints related to C&H Hog Farms. Although the state does monitor air quality for certain specified pollutants, the department does not regulate odors, Benenati said.
Opinions on C&H Hog Farms and assessments of the odor emanating from its fields are mixed among Mount Judea residents.
Denise King, owner of the Mount Judea General Store, said that while the smell of hog manure is often part of life in the town, it is not overwhelming.
“I’d be lying if I said you couldn’t smell it,” King said. “But my opinion, and most folks around here are like this, is that folks should be allowed to do what they want on their own property.”
In April, the Ozark Society and the Arkansas Policy Panel, a left-leaning lobbying organization based in Little Rock, succeeded in persuading the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to issue a six-month moratorium preventing the Environmental Quality Department from issuing any additional operating permits to medium- or large-scale swine concentrated animal-feeding operations within the Buffalo National River Watershed. The watershed covers the majority of Newton and Searcy counties.
The commission is also considering a proposed change to state regulations that would make the ban permanent, although it would not retroactively affect C&H Hog Farms, and institute regulatory changes that would require additional notification requirements for similar operations across the state.
The public comment period for the proposed rule changes closes July 1.