2 agencies' 2nd look: Hog farm no big risk

Two federal agencies issued a draft environmental assessment Thursday for C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea that comes to the same conclusion as a tossed-out 2012 study: The farm is not likely to have a significant detrimental impact in the Buffalo National River watershed.

The assessment is good news for the facility but disappointing to environmental groups that have worked to shut down C&H and curb future medium and large hog farms in the watershed for fear of hog waste pollution in the popular tourist area and rough karst terrain.

The facility sits on Big Creek, 6.8 miles from where it flows into the Buffalo National River. It is the first large-scale hog facility in the watershed, which is the area that drains into the river.

The new assessment was mandated by a 2014 federal court order after a judge ruled the 2012 study was faulty because it did not address the Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act.

The original study allowed for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration to back loans needed for the C&H facility to open -- called loan guarantees.

The court order suspends the guarantees during the reassessment process. But because C&H Hog Farms has been up and running for two years, it could have been affected by the court order only if it defaulted on its loans.

The assessment can be considered a positive development, C&H co-owner Jason Henson said.

"It's good news for the next farmer who might be wanting a USDA or SBA loan."

Henson owns C&H along with his two cousins, Phillip and Richard Campbell.

Jack Stewart, vice president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, isn't convinced that the assessment is definitive.

"Big agriculture industry has slowly over the years managed to get the rules in their favor, and so it makes it extremely difficult for the average person to object," he said. "They can always say they're following the rules. The rules were written for this kind of large-scale structure, and they're calling it a farm, which it isn't -- it's a factory."

C&H Hog Farms, considered a large facility permitted to house 2,503 sows and 4,000 piglets, opened in May 2013.

The alliance was created in response to C&H's permit approval from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the assessment released Thursday.

The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society, the Arkansas Canoe Club and the National Parks Conservation Association sued the federal agencies in 2013 after they agreed to back loans made to C&H that allowed the facility to open.

Before the agencies could back the Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas loans -- meaning the agencies would pay them back if the facility defaulted -- officials had to conduct an environmental assessment.

U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. issued the 2014 order that required the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration to follow both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the process, finding the agencies had failed to do so the first time.

The assessment issued Thursday studied surface water, groundwater and soils in the surrounding area, among other things, and determined that no action is needed in any of those areas to avert negative consequences.

Several passages in the assessment acknowledge that a rain event exceeding 50-year or 100-year levels could lead to accidental discharges from waste lagoons that would have "short-term" impact on nearby surface water.

But toward the end of the 81-page report, the assessment concluded that permanent damage is unlikely: "The construction and ongoing operation of the C&H Hog Farm did not and is not expected to result in any irreversible or irretrievable resource commitments."

People can comment on the assessment until Sept. 4. A public hearing on it will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Jasper School District Cafetorium on South Street off Arkansas 7. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

If the draft environmental assessment stays as is, Stewart said, he is concerned that it will be used to justify the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture study that is referred to within it. Stewart and others opposed to C&H are skeptical of the study's scope.

The five-year UA study looked at the cumulative impact of the hog farm's presence on Big Creek. It has been cited by Gov. Asa Hutchinson as his reason for supporting a five-year ban on new medium or large hog farms in the watershed -- as opposed to a previously proposed permanent one. The proposed five-year ban will go before the Arkansas Legislature's Rules and Regulations Committee at 9 a.m. on Aug. 19.

While new farms are being targeted, Stewart said he still thinks environmental interests have reason to hope that C&H could close someday.

He cited Brazil-based JBS' recent purchase of Cargill's pork division. Cargill supplies the hogs and feed to C&H.

"We're not sure that JBS will be pleased to discover all of what they're buying," he said. "There's been so much negative publicity with Cargill on this. ... In the scheme of what they're buying, C&H is pretty small, so it might be wise of them to close it down and move on."

Meanwhile, C&H Hog Farms is examining different waste-disposal methods to better satisfy environmental groups.

One includes a permit modification currently before the Environmental Quality Department that would add liners to some waste lagoons and place a cover on another that would capture gas emissions, send them through an upward pipe and burn them.

Another proposal would involve vaporizing the hog waste with technology from Florida-based Plasma Energy Group, but progress on that effort has stalled, and it has not received Environmental Quality Department approval. Henson, Cargill and Plasma Energy Group officials have said they still plan to pursue the technology.

In 2014, the Buffalo National River -- the country's first national river -- had more than 1.3 million visitors , who spent about $56.5 million at area businesses, according to National Park Service data.

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