The federal agencies ordered by a judge to redo environmental assessments of C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea had their subsequent appeal of the decision dismissed Friday.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the agencies' appeal filed earlier this year, according to court records.
On Friday, environmental groups called the dismissal a victory.
"This is a truly significant victory, but the fight to remove C & H Hog Farms from the Buffalo River watershed goes on," Dane Schumacher, a Buffalo River Watershed Alliance Board member, said in an Earthjustice news release. Earthjustice represents the environmental groups that filed the original lawsuit against the federal agencies.
The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Arkansas Canoe Club, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Ozark Society sued the agencies in August 2013, arguing that the Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency failed to properly consult with other agencies, including the National Park Service, in conducting an environmental assessment of the facility while considering loan guarantees to it.
The environmental assessment carried a "finding of no significant impact."
Attorneys for the defendants had asked that the court not specify how the agencies should conduct their reviews, such as requiring an impact statement.
In October, U.S District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ruled that the assessment was "too brief," had "no chain of reasoning" and violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
An Arkansas Farm Bureau representative said after Marshall's decision that the case wouldn't change what happened to C&H Hog Farms but that it might make it harder for new farms to get loans.
The U.S. Small Business Administration and the Farm Service Agency had agreed to back $3.4 million in private loans made to C&H Hog Farms after the company was found to have insufficient collateral, meaning that the agencies would foot the bill for the company's loans if the company defaulted.
Marshall's order stops any payments from being made until the agencies have finished the new environmental assessment. The agencies had not made any payments on the loans previously.
C&H Hog Farms is on Big Creek, 6 miles from where it meets the Buffalo National River. Environmental activists and others have been concerned about the amount of animal waste generated in what they say is an environmentally sensitive area.
Metro on 04/25/2015