The Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday advanced a proposal that would increase spending authority for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture to perform water quality studies to monitor swine farming operations in the Buffalo National River watershed.
The funding, for fiscal 2019, would increase from $100,000 to $200,000.
The proposal also would extend the studies for three more fiscal years -- beyond the four fiscal years intended to end in fiscal 2019 -- until fiscal year 2022, said Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville. Douglas proposed this change to Senate Bill 77, the operations appropriation for the UA System and various divisions for fiscal 2019 that starts July 1.
"To reassure the canoeing public out there and recreational [people] that the Buffalo River is not in danger or that if there are problems that they are being found and being recognized, I feel like we need to continue this study for another three years," Douglas told lawmakers.
The studies will be continue to be conducted on behalf of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. The Agriculture Division will report the results and progress of these studies to legislative committees under SB77.
Douglas said he was assured the studies would be funded.
In response to questions by Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, Douglas said his proposal had nothing to do with the Department of Environmental Quality denying an operating permit to C&H Hog Farms on technical deficiencies. The farm's owners have appealed to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.
C&H Hog Farms operates in the Buffalo National River watershed, along Big Creek, about 6 miles from where the creek feeds into the Buffalo River. The farm has a permit to house 6,503 hogs at any given time and includes two storage ponds for hog manure and fields where hog manure is spread as fertilizer.
Afterward, Douglas said draft legislation he is circulating for an upcoming special session wouldn't affect C&H Hog Farms. He declined to provide a copy of the draft to a reporter.
-- Michael R. Wickline and John Moritz