E. coli levels high in waters near hog farm

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The environmental research team tasked with collecting data near a Newton County hog farm released its second quarterly report late last week, noting several temporary elevations in bacterial levels in nearby waterways.

The Big Creek Research Team, led by Andrew Sharpley, a professor of soils and water quality at the University of Arkansas, is a project of the university's Division of Agriculture. It was devised by several state legislators last year to respond to growing public concern regarding C&H Hog Farms, the first large-scale, swine-concentrated animal-feeding operation to receive a Regulation 6 permit inside the Buffalo National River watershed.

The farm, which is permitted to house approximately 2,500 sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at a time, is located in Mount Judea near Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from its confluence with the Buffalo National River.

The research team began deploying equipment to gather water and soil samples in late 2013. In early February, the team published its first quarterly report, which outlined both its research strategy and its plans for establishing baseline data.

Sharpley and his team placed monitoring equipment on three of 17 grassland fields surrounding the farm's 40-acre production facility. The 17 fields cover about 630 acres, upon which the farm operators are permitted to spread the millions of gallons of manure produced annually by the hogs inside the facility.

The team is monitoring soil, surface water and groundwater for the presence of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus; dissolved oxygen; and bacteria such as E. coli, which is associated with pathogens found in animal waste.

The report features weekly sampling results from both the first and second quarters, collected at four points along Big Creek, both upstream and downstream from the farm and production facilities, and from a spring located approximately half a mile east of Big Creek in Mount Judea.

Although most of the reported measurements were within state limits established by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, several instances of very high levels of E. coli were detected during weekly sample collections. Environmental Quality Department Regulation 2, which governs water-quality standards throughout the state, sets acceptable levels for minerals, nutrients, bacteria and other substances in surface and groundwaters in Arkansas.

According to the regulation, levels of E. coli should not exceed 400 colonies per 100 milliliters of water in "primary contact waters," which are waters used for recreational activities such as swimming or canoeing between May 1 and Sept. 30. Limitation guidelines for waters between Oct. 1 and April 30 are considerably higher: 2,000 colonies per 100 milliliters of water, using a single-sample technique.

On Oct. 1, one sample taken downstream from C&H Hog Farms registered 2,620 colonies per 100 milliliters; on Nov. 6, a sample taken from the spring east of the creek registered more than 8,500 colonies, and another sample taken upstream from the farm registered more than 4,000 colonies.

Sharpley said most of the elevated readings were attributable to high rainfall and flooding events, when runoff across an entire area sweeps large amounts of matter into waterways. Although much of the public criticism aimed at the farm has focused on concerns that such rain events would ultimately flush manure byproducts into the Buffalo National River no matter how well-executed the farm's nutrient-management plan, Sharpley said that because high levels of E. coli were detected both upstream and downstream of the farm, it was impossible to pinpoint a single source of the bacteria.

Chuck Bitting, the natural resource program manager for the Buffalo National River, said water samples he has collected from Big Creek and below the creek's confluence with the river over the past several months also have shown periodic increases in E. coli that have been much higher than samples taken from other comparable streams in the area during the same time period.

"A real high number [of E. coli bacteria] doesn't bother us," Bitting said, noting that what concerned him about some of the recent samples was that they presented high bacteria counts with very low levels of dissolved oxygen.

"That indicates to us that there's a lot of biological oxygen demand, probably a lot of biological activity, like algae."

Bitting said the low dissolved-oxygen rates were unusual because the samples were taken during and after rain events, when high levels of turbulence in water typically results in higher-than-average levels of dissolved oxygen.

According to the quarterly report, the Big Creek Research Team is not yet monitoring for dissolved oxygen in waterways but plans to begin installing the necessary monitoring equipment this quarter.

According to Regulation 2, at least 25 percent of eight or more samples taken between May 1 and September 30 must exceed the state's E. coli standards before a waterway is considered "impaired" by bacteria.

Sharpley said the research team will begin working with the U.S. Geological Society to analyze stream and groundwater data this quarter, as well as beginning "dye trace" studies, something critics of the farm have pushed for in the past year. Because much of Newton County, including the Mount Judea area, sits on a karst geology, any contaminants that infiltrate groundwater in the area may move very fast and in unpredictable directions.

Dye trace studies are sometimes used to identify the path of groundwater in a particular area by introducing a small amount of dye with a unique radiological signature into a well, sinkhole, or other portal to groundwater, and reporting on where the dye reappears in other water bodies.

Although several environmental-activist organizations that have spoken out against the Environmental Quality Department's decision to issue a permit to C&H Hog Farms have asked that dye trace studies be conducted through the hog farm's slurry ponds -- the two open-air lagoons that contain hog waste before it is applied to the surrounding grasslands -- Sharpley declined to say exactly where the researchers might insert the dye.

"If I give you answers, they'll be immediately criticized by someone else, so I think we better decide amongst ourselves," Sharpley said.

The report also addresses the need for long-term funding for the study to be effective. Although the state Legislature appropriated more than $340,000 from the Arkansas Rainy Day Fund to initiate the study and to fund the research through its first year, the report says that "additional funds" will be needed to pay for sample collection and analysis for a full five years, which is considered the minimum amount of time needed to determine the long-term effects on waterways in the area.

The quarterly report can be viewed and downloaded at http://arkansasagnews.uark.edu/CH_Quarterly_Report_Jan-March_2014.pdf.

NW News on 05/07/2014