JASPER -- The National Park Service opposes Arkansas' draft plan to continue issuing "general permits" for concentrated animal feeding operations.
Chuck Bitting, the service's manager of the natural resource program for the Buffalo National River, said the proposed plan allows for less public input than the current setup, which has been in place since 2011.
"We feel that the proposed changes will make the permit less protective of water quality," Bitting told a crowd of about 70 Thursday night at the Jasper School District cafetorium.
The public comment period on the draft plan ended Thursday night.
Doug Szenher, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said by email that four additions are proposed in the draft renewal plan:
• Exclusion of coverage for new concentrated animal feeding operations in the Buffalo National River watershed.
• Submittal of renewal notice of intent and a revised nutrient management plan within 90 days after the issuance date of the new permit, which would allow adequate time to review those documents and allow for public notification.
• Clarification of construction requirements in the general permit for new or revised concentrated animal feeding operations.
• Updated public-notice requirements.
But Bitting said that doesn't include subtractions and other alterations, which amount to 11 pages of changes.
"We really feel it is less protective of the waters because some things have been taken out, wording has been changed, and there's less opportunity for public comment," he said.
Some people thought that this Ozark Mountain town -- 142 miles from Little Rock and 75 miles from Fayetteville -- was an unusual place to hold the state's only public meeting about the renewal of its general permit for concentrated animal feeding operations.
"I object to this meeting being held in Jasper, Arkansas," Nancy Haller of Jasper said. "I think there are hundreds of people -- maybe thousands -- in Little Rock and Fayetteville that would like to have something to say about this."
The meeting was being held in Jasper because of its proximity to C&H Hog Farms, John Bailey told the audience in the cafetorium. Bailey is assistant division manager for the Office of Water Quality at state Environmental Quality Department.
C&H Hog Farms is the only concentrated animal feeding operation that has a general permit from the state.
Jasper, population 466, is the Newton County seat.
General permits are meant to cut down on paperwork and make the permitting process easier, but environmentalists argue that it made the process too easy for C&H Hog Farms to get a permit for a large farm near Mount Judea in 2012. They say the farm may be polluting tributaries of the Buffalo National River, a national park that attracts more than 1 million visitors a year. Mount Judea is 14 miles southeast of Jasper.
"The C&H permit was thoroughly and completely reviewed and all legal requirements were followed by this agency prior to its approval," Szenher said by email.
The agency's ability to issue general permits for concentrated animal feeding operations expires Oct. 31. The agency is requesting renewal of its general-permit authority for another five years, and a public comment period is required. Szenher said Environmental Quality Department will likely make a decision on the renewal before the current permit authority expires.
Some people who spoke Thursday said another public meeting should be held, probably in Little Rock.
"They're hiding from public input," Haller said during a break in the meeting. "This is something that affects the whole state of Arkansas."
Bob Shofner, a beef cattle farmer from Centerton, said the meeting should be held in Jasper because that's where the controversy is centered.
"People can get in their cars and drive up here," he said.
Shofner said there have been two environmental assessments that showed no pollution from C&H.
Evan Teague, vice president of commodity and regulatory affairs for Farm Bureau of Arkansas, said, "I'm sick and tired of hearing people from the environmental community berate farmers."
The meeting Thursday wasn't about the renewal of the permit for C&H. The hog farm has a permit that will expire next year.
General permits allow the state agency to "streamline the permitting process for a category of facilities which share similar characteristics and operational procedures," Szenher said by email.
There is a short waiting period for a general permit compared with "individual permits," which can take six months or longer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Clean Water Act prohibits anybody from discharging "pollutants" through a "point source" into a "water of the United States" unless such a "discharger" has a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
An individual permit is unique to a specific discharger. The individual permit is normally written to reflect site-specific conditions of a single discharger based on information submitted by that entity, according to the EPA.
A general permit is written to cover multiple dischargers with similar operations and types of discharges based on the permit writer's professional knowledge of those types of activities and discharges, according to the EPA.
"Individual permits are issued directly to an individual discharger whereas a general permit is issued to no one in particular with multiple dischargers obtaining coverage under that general permit after it is issued," according to the website.
"Many hog farms in Arkansas and other states have similar features and operating characteristics, and at some point a decision was made at the agency that it would be appropriate to offer a general permit for [concentrated animal feeding operations], just as we have created general permits for other types of operations," Szenher said by email.
Until 2011, the Environmental Quality Department issued only individual permits for concentrated animal feeding operations, but beginning that year, general permits were also available, and so far only one has been issued -- to C&H Hog Farms.
C&H is near Big Creek, which is a tributary to the Buffalo National River. C&H, which began operation in 2013, is permitted to hold up to 2,503 sows and 4,000 piglets at a time.
In August, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission put a five-year moratorium on new medium and large concentrated animal feeding operations in the Buffalo River watershed.
Metro on 04/15/2016