County judges, nearby mayors, local school superintendents and adjacent property owners will now be informed of permit applications for certain feedlots under a change to state regulations approved Friday by the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.
Previously, notice was published only on the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's website.
The new notification procedures pertain to anyone applying for general permit for a concentrated animal-feeding operation that is subject to Regulation 6. Regulation 6 oversees national pollution discharge elimination systems, which are used by any facility discharging waste directly into surface water.
The change was approved by a voice vote with no audible dissent or comment among the 13-member commission, which had all but two members -- Joe Fox and Ann Henry -- present Friday.
The change was recommended by a committee formed by Act 1511 of the state Legislature in 2013 as contention was emerging over the approval of a hog farm along Big Creek, a tributary to the Buffalo National River.
"I think it's produced something that will move standards forward in Arkansas," Ross Noland, a member of the committee, said after Friday's meeting.
Opponents of the hog farm argued that pollution from the animals' waste poses a threat to the river and were disappointed with the approval process for the farm's permit.
The state has issued only one concentrated animal-feeding operation permit, which was the C&H Hog Farm permit.
Under the amendment, permit applicants must provide written notice by letter through certified mail with return receipt requested to property owners adjacent to the proposed farm site, the local county judge, mayors of towns and cities within 10 miles of the proposed site and the local school superintendent.
Once obtaining the receipts -- proof of delivery from the post office -- the permit holder would be required to keep them for the duration of the permit.
Numerous public comments asked the committee to consider more organizations for notification, such as nearby water utilities. But the recommendations did not extend notice to many of the agencies that asked to be included.
"Some agencies that wanted to be added were location-specific," said Ryan Benefield, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. Benefield will become the department's director after Teresa Marks retires Wednesday.
"For a statewide rule, we thought this was the most appropriate," Benefield said.
He said the parties to which public notice was extended would likely spread the word.
"It will definitely be our most noticed application," he said.
Benefield served on the committee with Eric Wailes, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville; Gene Pharr of the Arkansas Farm Bureau; Jeff Marley of the Arkansas Agricultural Department; and Noland, an attorney with McMath Woods who has been involved with the Arkansas Public Policy Panel. Wailes and Noland were appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe.
The only public comment at Friday's hearing came from Carol Bitting, who lives within 10 miles of the C&H Hog Farm approved near the Buffalo National River. Bitting asked that the National Park Service be included in the new notice requirements because it responds to emergencies.
The National Park Service submitted a public comment June 2, asking that administrators of state and federal "land management agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations who manage property within 10 miles of the CAFO [concentrated animal-feeding operation] production site and/or the manure spreading sites" be included in the expanded notifications.
On July 25, the Arkansas Department of Health asked that "public water systems within a ten mile radius of the proposed site" be included.
On July 24, Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers asked that the Health Department be included and that the National Park Service be notified when a permit is requested within the watershed of a national park.
Noland had recommended that the committee include the Health Department, along with state and federal agencies that manage public land potentially affected by a proposed concentrated animal-feeding operation. But that recommendation did not make it out of the committee into the final draft sent to and approved by the commission Friday.
Noland said the committee was "just trying to make sure local folks know what's going on."
"As it [stood], that wouldn't happen," he said.
Metro on 09/27/2014