The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on Friday will consider a third 180-day ban on new medium and large hog farms in the Buffalo River watershed, two days after the governor issued a statement in support of it.
The commission has approved the ban twice before with little dissent, but Friday's meeting at the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality headquarters in North Little Rock will be a first for four of the 13 commissioners: Robert Reynolds of El Dorado, Wesley Stites of Fayetteville, David Chris Gardner of Paragould -- all three governor appointments -- and Ricky Chastain, the new designee from the Game and Fish Commission.
Reynolds is president of Shuler Drilling Co., Stites is the chairman of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's chemistry and biochemistry department, and Gardner is a lawyer in Jonesboro, all appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Nearly one year ago, the commission -- the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality's appellate body -- approved a moratorium on new hog farms in the watershed as two groups pursued a change to department rules that would permanently ban medium and large hog farms in the watershed.
The rule-making activity is a response to the establishment of C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea, a large-scale facility permitted to house about 2,500 sows and as many as 4,000 piglets at a time.
The facility, established in 2013, is on Big Creek, about 6 miles upstream from where it meets the Buffalo National River. C&H Hog Farms would not be affected by the rule making or the temporary ban.
Proponents of the permanent ban say it will help keep the river and its watershed clean by limiting the amount of potential pollution from hog waste in the river.
"The purpose of the rule making is to prevent the cumulative impact of multiple hog farms," said Ross Noland, the attorney for the rule-making process from the McMath Woods firm.
Many proponents also point to problems other states have had with catastrophic failures of hog waste holding ponds in extremely severe weather.
Jerry Masters, executive vice president of the Arkansas Pork Producers Association, said the industry has largely self-imposed a moratorium since contention arose about C&H Hog Farms in early 2013. He said the moratorium and permanent ban were "overkill."
He said the Buffalo River can be polluted by other sources and that his organization is consistently educating hog farmers on best management practices and environmental management.
Hutchinson issued a statement Wednesday in support of the 180-day moratorium and continued extension of it until the five-year, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville study on C&H Hog Farms' effect on the watershed is complete in 2018.
"Science and facts will drive our future decisions," Hutchinson said in the statement. "In the meantime, we'll do everything we can to protect the watershed while the facts are collected."
Former Gov. Mike Beebe gave the UA study $340,000 in rainy-day funds to get started, but no funds have been allocated for it since. Researchers anticipate running out of money before the study's five years are up.
Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said Wednesday that the governor was committed to keeping the study funded.
C&H Hog Farms is the first large-scale, swine-concentrated animal-feeding operation to receive a Regulation 6 waste permit from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. It's still the only one, in part because of the moratorium.
The Buffalo National River had more than 1 million visitors in 2013 who spent about $46 million collectively, according to National Park Service data.
The Ozark Society and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel are still pursuing a permanent ban, but it's been five months since the groups have had a hearing on the rule before the public health and agriculture committees of the Arkansas Legislature.
At that hearing, the committees declined to vote on the rule, as members slowly trickled out during the hours of questioning, leaving the committees without a quorum.
The groups were originally scheduled to have a hearing before only the public health committees in September, but the committees declined to vote and instead requested that the agriculture committees be included in the discussion of the new rule. The joint meeting was held in December, and another has not been scheduled.
Metro on 04/23/2015