Five year ban on new CAFOs in Buffalo watershed
Posted: Monday, August 31, 2015 4:00 pm
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Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission adopted last week changes to its regulations that will prohibit new permits for large swine facilities in the Buffalo River Watershed. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the Ozark Society petitioned the Commission in April of 2014, to initiate both rulemakings. The petitioners are Arkansas nonprofits dedicated to conservation and sound public policy.
According to a press release from the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, the changes to Regulations 5 and 6 prohibit the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Director from issuing new permits in the next five years for swine operations in the Buffalo National River Watershed with 750 or more swine weighing 55 pounds or more, or 3,000 or more swine weighing less than 55 pounds. The rules require the ADEQ Director to initiate rulemaking at the conclusion of that five-year period to either continue the ban indefinitely, or remove the ban.
“Today’s decision is great news for all Arkansans and the protection of the Buffalo River,” said Barry Haas, a member of the Panel’s Board of Directors. “We thank Governor Hutchinson, the Legislature and the APC&E Commission for their support to protect one of Arkansas’ most treasured natural resources.”
The new regulations do not impact C&H Hog Farm, the existing permitted facility in the Buffalo River Watershed, which is the subject of litigation.
“Buffalo River Watershed Alliance is grateful for the work of the petitioners, the Ozark Society and APPP, and their attorneys, Sam Ledbetter and Ross Noland, for shepherding this important rule change through the maze of legislative and bureaucratic review over the past two years. While we would have preferred to see a permanent ban on swine CAFOs in the Buffalo National River watershed, we also understand that the issue is controversial and has moved beyond sound environmental science and into the realm of politics where compromise is the rule,” noted Alliance president Gordon Watkins of Parthenon. “We are glad to know that the watershed will have some level of protection and a 5-year moratorium is certainly better than nothing.
“We are, however, concerned however that ADEQ will be depending entirely on the study being done by the Big Creek Research and Extension Team when making its determination in 5 years as to whether to extend or remove protections. We feel that the BCRET study, as it is currently designed, is flawed, inadequate and will provide insufficient data to make such an important determination and that other, more comprehensive and extensive studies such as are currently being done by the National Park Service, the Karst Hydrogeology in the Buffalo River Watershed team (KHBNR), and others, must be equally considered.”
Watkins noted that the Alliance membership will be working to both encourage BCRET to strengthen its monitoring efforts, as well as to support other independent and unbiased efforts to closely examine the impacts C&H is having on Big Creek and the Buffalo River. “We will make every effort to insure that all relevant data is considered when making a final decision regarding permanent protection of the Buffalo."