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  • 09 Apr 2017 6:31 AM | Anonymous member

    Our Buffalo

    What permit?

    By Mike Masterson

    Posted: April 9, 2017 at 1:48 a.m.


    Many Arkansans have wondered for years how in the world our state's Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) could have permitted a large hog factory in the sacred Buffalo National River watershed without conducting extensive geologic and engineering studies beforehand.

    And how could the agency's own director, the governor, the National Park Service and even agency staff members not have known such a permit was under review?

    After reaching out to former agency employees I consider credible, who say they recognize the decision that allowed the controversial C&H Hog Farms to sail through its permitting process, I finally have a fair understanding of how this could have happened.

    If their scenario isn't smack on the money, I believe it's far more than a pig in a poke (sorry).

    I'm told the original package submitted by C&H in 2012 contained an application for a construction permit, another for an operating permit, and one for a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) permit, all of which are expected for such facilities. In short, the owners acted in full compliance with legal requirements.

    A state-mandated construction permit requires such a proposed facility jump through regulatory hoops to ensure it's constructed to specific design standards in a location suitable to the terrain and environment.

    Even though C&H submitted all necessary plans and specifications to receive its "permit to construct," unbelievably, I'm told, the department never formally reviewed them because one or more of the senior management staff decided the construction permit portion wouldn't be necessary for this particular massive animal factory in the karst-riddled Buffalo watershed.

    Who would make such a highly questionable and troubling decision? It's certainly an answer, were I governor or a member of the state's Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, that I'd insist on knowing.

    Forgoing the construction permit ensured there would be no agency reviews of an engineering or geologic nature conducted. From that point on the C&H application became pretty much just another proposed CAFO being reviewed, processed and approved by worker bees. It obviously didn't matter to some in the department that this factory containing some 6,500 swine and endless massive quantities of untreated waste was approved without careful scientific review to begin spreading that waste alongside a major tributary of the Buffalo six miles downstream.

    So, valued readers, the potential serious problems that the Department of Environmental Quality never bothered studying were neither demanded nor achieved. Although I'm told state law says it's unlawful to construct such approved facilities without the department first issuing the specific authorization to do so via a construction permit.

    As time and events continue to unfold in this shameful saga that could have easily been avoided, perhaps we the people hopefully will discover who apparently made that fateful decision to ignore a construction permit and why. You'd think the Pollution Control and Ecology commissioners would demand some honest answers, wouldn't you?

    Meanwhile, on a related note, folks at the National Parks Conservation Association said last week that the Department of Environmental Quality and the governor's office had received more than 14,000 comments as of the final day for public comments on awarding C&H a new permit. And I'm betting that's but a tenth of those who are opposed to issuing another permit in this sacred location of our state, especially when it draws 1.5 million tourists and recreation-seekers a year and the estimated $60 million they spend to support some 960 people who work in related businesses.


  • 04 Apr 2017 7:07 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arkansasonline


    OPINION

    MIKE MASTERSON: Letter to the governor 

    That hog factory

    By Mike Masterson


    The original version of this appeal was published April 12, 2016, almost a year ago. This being the final week kindly afforded we the people by our state's Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) for public comment on a new permit for C&H Hog Farms, it seemed a relevant time to reprint it. Still awaiting a response, by the way.

    Dear Governor Hutchinson: Having known you and our gracious state's first lady Susan for years, you realize I wouldn't write this unless my heartfelt convictions were firmly behind these words.

    I know you, having served in the same 3rd District congressional seat my uncle, the late John Paul Hammerschmidt, held for 26 years, understand better than most the trials of public responsibility and how close the Buffalo River was to his heart and conscience. That's why he acted in the face of strong local resistance to ensure this precious resource was preserved for generations to come.

    His willingness to do what he and some Arkansas colleagues in Congress knew deep inside was the right thing to do resulted in the Buffalo being named our country's first national river in 1972. How wonderful for our state.

    Of his many achievements in the career of public service he so honored and cherished, I believe his efforts to ensure the Buffalo River remained protected were the ones in which he took most pride.

    So I write to sincerely ask you, on behalf of myself and untold thousands of concerned Arkansans and others who've enjoyed the experience of the magnificent Buffalo National River, to do whatever's necessary to stop the likely contamination of our precious Buffalo National River from raw hog waste.

    Good-ol'-boy arm-twisting politics, self-interested agricultural lobbyists and campaign contributors be damned; we ask you to act as the elected governor of Arkansas to ensure this natural treasure is never polluted by what geoscience experts believe is the inevitable contamination from swine waste continuously dumped into the Buffalo watershed through rapid, steady subsurface seepage, as well as into its primary tributaries, including Big Creek.

    No lesser authorities than the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as nationally respected former UA geosciences professor John Van Brahana, have conducted studies that strongly agree, indicating such pollution already is affecting the watershed through increased E. coli counts and/or low dissolved oxygen levels.

    Warning lights are on. Yet your state agency solely responsible for ensuring our Buffalo is never contaminated, the very one that wrongly allowed this travesty into the karst-laden region more than two years ago, stands by idly, even making hollow excuses why it can do nothing due to "policies."

    Above all words and excuses, Mr. Governor, common sense tells every Arkansan that one cannot continually spray raw feces and urine in amounts larger than are created by the nearby city of Harrison onto overly saturated fields bordering Big Creek without those millions of gallons causing pollution. Water does flow downhill to the Buffalo.

    Yes, I realize your predecessor Mike Beebe formed a five-year survey called the Big Creek Research and Extension Team from the UA's Department of Agriculture. That group not only costs the taxpayers at least $300,000 to perform its responsibilities, but there is widespread skepticism as to its making impartial assessments when it comes to policing C&H Hog Farms at Mount Judea and its 6,500 confined swine.

    After all, we have state agricultural academics using state funds to investigate the credibility of the state's Department of Environmental Quality, with its former director saying even she didn't realize her agency had done so. Neither did the governor, the National Park Service or Environmental Quality's local staffers. Good grief!

    Those special interests that embrace the hog factory staying put in this precious and sensitive environmental location claim to support farming and the farmer, as well as the pork-producing industry. I say this type of corporately financed concentrated animal feeding operation obviously diminishes and even eliminates genuine family farms who can't compete. In this instance, a misplaced factory seriously endangers a $54 million-a-year recreation and tourism gemstone in one of Arkansas' poorest regions.

    Finally, in my appeal to do the right thing and take meaningful action with the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission you appoint, and the seemingly neutered and fully politicized Department of Environmental Quality, I refer to previous Gov. Mike Beebe's biggest confessed regret being that he was unaware this factory was being permitted.

    Beebe was quoted by a fellow columnist saying: "I wish it was never there. I've stopped all future ones. ... If I had it to do over, it wouldn't happen."

    Today, Governor Hutchinson, the people of Arkansas are closely watching how you choose to step up to resolve this most significant matter. I'm truly hoping you choose to follow John Paul's sense of integrity and do the obvious proper and honorable thing by our only national river.

    Rather than regret, closing this misplaced factory before it irreparably contaminates our national river could become among your finest achievements in office.

    ------------v------------

    Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.

    Editorial on 04/04/2017

  • 01 Apr 2017 1:05 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arkansasonline


    Court date sought in hog-waste case


    Two of the three women who appealed the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s decision to issue a permit to EC Farms in the Buffalo River watershed have taken their case to circuit court.

    Carol Bitting and Lynn Wellford filed an appeal in Newton County Circuit Court of the decision of the department’s administrative law judge, Charles Moulton, to side with Bitting’s argument but allow the department to issue EC Farms a new permit without reopening the application process.

    The permit allows EC Farms to spread more than 6 million gallons of hog manure on its land, but the manure would only come from C&H Hog Farms, which produces about 2.3 million gallons of hog manure and already spreads much of that on its property.

    Bitting, Wellford and Nancy Haller appealed the permit’s issuance, but Moulton dismissed Wellford’s and Haller’s complaints and upheld only Bitting’s for a hearing.

    Bitting had claimed regulations required the department to issue a separate permit for spreading the hog manure on EC Farms, rather than allowing EC Farms to simply modify it to accept C&H manure. Moulton agreed but did not reopen the application process.

    Bitting and Wellford appealed Moulton’s decision Feb. 24. Haller died of cancer March 8.

    Opponents of the hog farm have expressed concerns about the potential for hog manure ending up in the nearby Buffalo River and ruining the area’s scenic qualities.

  • 29 Mar 2017 8:04 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    News Tribune

    Green again blocks hog farm vote


    March 29th, 2017by Bob Watson

    Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green has again blocked the Clean Water Commission's plans to vote on a proposed hog farm in Callaway County.

    Eichelberger Farms Inc., based in Wayland, Iowa, wants to operate the Callaway Farrowing LLC confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, near Hatton, with 9,520 swine more than 55 pounds and another 800 swine under 55 pounds.

    Green on Tuesday issued a preliminary order prohibiting the commission and its chairman, Buddy Bennett, from holding a vote April 5, as currently scheduled.

    Green ordered the commission, the state Department of Natural Resources and Callaway Farrowing to file their answers to the petition seeking to prohibit a commission vote on or before April 24, and refrain from all actions until further order.

    The Friends of Responsible Agriculture — the group formed in July 2014 to oppose the proposed CAFO — asked Green for the latest action, noting the issue is listed on the April 5 commission agenda with a department recommendation "the Commission uphold the permit as originally issued by the Department."

    However, the Friends group's petition — for a court order blocking the commission vote — reminds the court the commission already has failed to approve the proposal twice.

    On Oct. 5, the petition noted, commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the proposed CAFO, but state law requires "all final orders or determinations or other final actions by the commission shall be approved in writing by at least four members of the commission."

    The group won a Dec. 21 order from Green that the vote failed to approve the proposal.

    At a Jan. 5 meeting, the commission voted 2-2 on the proposal — again failing to pass it.

    "It cannot be disputed that the legal effect of these two votes is that the Callaway Farrowing Permit MOGS10485 was not approved," Chesterfield attorney Stephen G. Jeffery wrote in his nine-page motion asking for the new order.

     Additionally, Callaway Farrowing should have asked the court to review the Oct. 5 vote but didn't, failing "to exhaust its available administrative remedies."

     Jeffrey also argued no state law gives the Clean Water Commission authority to conduct a second (or third) vote on the Callaway Farrowing permit.

    Note: Attorney Steven Jeffery is part of the BRWA legal team.
  • 28 Mar 2017 8:14 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The state of Arkansas is accepting through April 6 public comments regarding a new permit for an industrial hog farm located upstream of Buffalo National River.

    The C&H Hog Farms, Inc., operation at Mount Judea is located along Big Creek about six miles upstream of the national river. Under a contract with Cargill, Inc., an international agricultural and food conglomerate, C&H confines approximately 6,500 pigs at a time, making the operation the first of its size and scale in the Buffalo River watershed.

    Though it has been operating since 2013 under a general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, the company is now seeking a change in its permit to one that presumes there will be no waste discharges from the property.

    The hog farm is located in a region of karst geology, which is is composed of easily dissolved rocks, such as limestone and dolomite. Via sinkholes and underground caves in the geology, groundwater can flow miles very quickly. In the National Park System, karst geology is perhaps mostly visibly connected to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, but it can also be found along the Buffalo National River and at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri.

    Keeping pollutants out of this geology is particularly important for the Buffalo National River, as its boundaries encompass just 11 percent of the Buffalo River watershed. The C&H Hog Farms' "concentrated animal feeding operation," or CAFO, generates an "estimated nitrogen output ... equivalent to a human population of 7,000, and the phosphorus output is equivalent to 23,000 humans, in a watershed with a total human population of approximately 17,000."

    So far, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, more than 14,000 comments have been submitted to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality asking that the new permit be denied.

    ADEQ’s contact person for submitting written comments, requesting information regarding the draft permit, or obtaining a copy of the permit and the Statement of Basis is Katherine McWilliams, at 5301 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock, Arkansas 72118-5317,  501-682-0650, or at Water-Draft-Permit-Comment@adeq.state.ar.us.  

    In 2012, the state granted C&H a permit for this facility without allowing adequate public input or consultation from the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or local communities. The state permit expired on October 31, 2016. Now, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the ADEQ "have an opportunity to protect America’s first national river by denying the company’s application for a permit 5264-W, which seeks to allow C&H to continue spreading hog waste in this fragile ecosystem," NPCA said.

    The feedlot has generated a lot of controversy among environmental groups because of the potential threat it poses to the Buffalo National River. Last fall, water testing in Big Creek downstream of C&H by the Big Creek Research and Extension Team found higher levels of nitrate, total nitrogen, total coliform bacteria, chloride, specific conductance, alkalinity, and total dissolved solids than water samples taken upstream of the farm.

    While state testing in 2014 found state limits for E. coli were exceeded both upstream and downstream of the farm, in 2015, higher levels were detected only in the upstream samples.

    A lengthy report by the director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Wyoming Water Science Center on these tests and water quality impacts to the national river offered nearly a dozen recommendations, including one for dye tracing studies around the pig feedlot in a bid to determine how surface water enters the surrounding karst topography and show where it exits.

    “This is our last chance to protect the Buffalo National River, our country’s first national river and a beloved national park, which belongs to all Americans. Allowing C&H to continue spreading millions of gallons of waste in the Buffalo’s watershed could do irreparable damage to the regional tourism economy and threatens local drinking water,” said Emily Jones, NPCA's senior program manager for the Southeast Region. “Along with thousands of our members and supporters in Arkansas and across the country, NPCA urges Governor Hutchinson to protect this precious resource and keep the Buffalo safe for people to swim, fish, and float.”

    The Buffalo National River offers recreational opportunities along 135 miles of free-flowing river, and is a major economic driver for the region. The river welcomed more than 1.7 million visitors in 2016, pumping millions of dollars into nearby communities and supporting local jobs.

  • 28 Mar 2017 6:58 AM | Anonymous member

    MIKE MASTERSON: ‘Clearly malfeasant’

    Geologist speaks

    By Mike Masterson

    Posted: March 28, 2017 at 4:30 a.m.


    NWAOnline


    A former 30-year veteran of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) has written an explosive letter claiming malfeasance and flawed findings, saying that agency inexplicably failed to consult its own geologists before issuing the original permit to C&H Hog Farms at Mount Judea.

    Gerald Delevan, previously a geology supervisor at the department, sent a lengthy letter (edited portions below) to Jamal Solaimanian, engineering supervisor of the agency's Water Division, which listed numerous objections to support his assertions.

    The review and approval of the initial application "to allow the land application and disposal of a large volume of untreated hog waste in the Big Creek watershed under a General Permit ... was at best poorly conceived and poorly executed by Water Division staff," Develan wrote.

    To his knowledge, he said, the initial application was never reviewed by any geologist throughout the agency before the permit was issued.

    Delevan said had the geologists been allowed to review the application, it's highly unlikely any of them would have signed off on the proposed permit without requesting geologic data about the locations and proposed land application sites.

    "I believe the permit review process conducted by the Water Division engineers ... was severely flawed," Delevan wrote, "as it failed to adequately consider several issues, the first being the potential impact of locating this hog farm and its associated land application sites on the shallow karstic limestone geology beneath the site" prior to issuing the permit.

    "In addition, Water Division engineers were clearly malfeasant in their review of the ... application, as they failed to consider missing key data needed to properly and adequately evaluate the potential environmental impact of this ... operation on the local environment."

    Delevan said the known presence of karst beneath the proposed locations along or around Big Creek, a major Buffalo tributary, should have raised a major "Red Flag."

    It's not as if this highly trained veteran geologist didn't fully understand the process, having participated in the review of all types of permits, writing their requirements, and responding to public comments. He also understands the nature of the fragile subsurface underlying this grossly misplaced swine factory. "The limestone geology ... is known to be highly fractured, with numerous voids and conduits which move surface water and ground water rapidly through a vast system of interconnected fractures, solution channel and springs just inches below the soil profile."

    The C&H Environmental Assessment as part of the permit application barely mentions or discusses subsurface geology beneath the sites, he added, "or discuss any possible impacts hog farm operations may or may not have on shallow local ground water supplies present beneath the farm and land application sites. The [assessment] also failed to discuss any potential impacts to surface water quality or ground water quality from waste infiltration or waste water runoff ...

    "It is clear, Water Division engineers and [Environmental Quality] senior staff, by overlooking these omissions ... and by not requesting additional information be provided by the applicant in regard to these omissions, [the Department of Environmental Quality] failed to adequately review the C&H application as submitted."

    Therefore, Delevan wrote, his former employer should not have issued the final permit to C&H until the deficiencies were addressed. "It is also my opinion [the department] was also malfeasant by not having [a department] registered professional geologist or any other geologist from any agency ... review and comment ... prior to its approval and issuance."

    Delevan wrote that the agency has options. "It is hoped the agency will do the right thing and step back from seemingly stumbling blindly along ... and take the time to evaluate all of the data collected by all of the researchers and scientists, prior to issuing the final permit to C&H.

    "Hopefully," he continued, "this approach would allow ... staff conducting the permit review to make a better informed decision regarding whether or not the proposed permit modification application for C&H Hog Farms should be approved and issued by [the department].

    "If the data indicates the ongoing farming operation at C&H is already adversely impacting the water quality in Big Creek, then [the farm] is in violation of the Arkansas Air and Water Pollution Control Act and [its] current permit. If this is the case, the proposed permit modification ... should, in my opinion, be denied."

    Delevan's opinion is that granting the permit "will ultimately lead to the slow, long-term, inevitable degradation of overall water quality" in surface and groundwater supplies.

    Delevan said he sent a copy of his letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is receiving plenty of credible forewarning of what many believe is a catastrophe waiting to happen on his watch. See Delevan's full letter at tinyurl.com/m4tu4sq.

    ------------v------------

    Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.

  • 25 Mar 2017 7:46 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arkansasonline


    More JBS charges

    By Mike Masterson

    Posted: March 25, 2017 at 2:31 a.m.


    The Brazil-based meatpacker that provides and purchases the more than 6,000 swine raised by C&H Hog Farms in the Buffalo National River watershed is in trouble after police say it was caught giving payoffs to inspectors and politicians to allow the sale of spoiled meat.

    As a result of a two-year investigation, the European Commission says it's carefully monitoring the JBS meat corporation and another major meatpacker it alleges were criminally shelling out cash to influence Brazilian officials.

    The corporation's JBS USA subsidiary purchased Cargill Inc.'s U.S. pork business--which includes the Mount Judea hog factory--for $1.45 billion in November 2015. That was about three years after Cargill was pivotal in launching and supporting the privately owned C&H facility that our state officials so quickly and quietly permitted into our sacred Buffalo watershed.

    In Brazil, a judge accused the Ministry of Agriculture of selecting inspectors who approved substandard meat for market. A two-year police investigation alleges JBS and another major meatpacker in that country also channeled bribes to two of Brazil's major political parties, including that of the Brazilian president. News accounts say dozens of arrest warrants have been issued.

    One Brazilian investigator said during a new conference that the meatpackers were using chemicals to improve the appearance and smell of expired meats, and that good meat supposedly was mixed with bad, and water and a gluten-free flour also added as a disguise.

    The investigation also reportedly revealed that schoolchildren in southern Brazil were being fed "outdated, rotten and many times cancerous" meats to benefit the financial interests of a "crime gang."

    As if these allegations weren't bad enough, in 2016 the JBS chairman and eight other company officials were charged with financial crimes involving loans.

    It's troublesome to me that the international corporate contractors behind our state's large swine factory are in trouble back home for alleged financial crimes and bribes to allow rotten meat into markets and schools. Officials within the European Union were inflamed enough by the charges to halt meat exports from JBS and another Brazilian company called BRF.

    While there's no connection between what happens in Brazil and the factory at Mount Judea, this company's reported practices naturally catch my attention and that of others across Arkansas.

  • 20 Mar 2017 8:12 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arkansasonline


    Environmental notebook

    by Emily Walkenhorst

    Comment extended on large hog farm

    The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has extended the public comment period on the draft operating permit for C&H Hog Farms for 20 days.

    The department will now accept comments through 4:30 p.m. April 6, according to a notice published by the department. The comment period was originally scheduled to end last Friday.

    The department had received requests to extend the comment period.

    C&H Hog Farms Inc., near Mount Judea in Newton County, sits on Big Creek about 6 miles from where it converges with the Buffalo National River. It is the only federally classified large hog farm in the river's watershed, which has typically been home to several small hog farms, and is currently permitted to house up to 6,000 piglets and 2,503 sows.

    The new permit indicates the facility would house up to six boars of about 450 pounds, 2,672 sows of at least 400 pounds and 750 piglets of about 14 pounds and estimates that the two waste-holding ponds would contain up to 2,337,074 gallons of hog manure, similar to what is contained now. Additional waste and wastewater will be applied over certain sites as fertilizer.


  • 14 Mar 2017 10:34 AM | Anonymous member

    Letter to the Editor in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette


    Close down hog farm


    The Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (buffaloriveralliance.org) lists six reasons why the C&H Hog Farms permit was improperly approved by the Department of Environmental Quality and should be denied.

    Additionally, I am concerned about community. It is well-documented that exposure to hog waste increases asthma and other health issues, especially in children. Yet permits allow this waste from C&H to be spread in close proximity to a school.

    The Buffalo National River provides jobs and income. When an inevitable disaster like a flood or leaking sewage ponds above porous karst causes water pollution and our Buffalo National River loses its value as a tourist attraction, many lives will be adversely affected. Even if hog waste never enters the stream, the odor of the manure throughout the region will deter tourist dollars as well as Arkansans' enjoyment of this extraordinary region.

    Some people feel that everyone should have a right to do whatever they like with land they own. I think this right does not remain when a private landowner's business has such a potentially devastating effect on their neighbor's ability to earn a living and enjoy a healthy life. Very few local jobs are created by C&H, contrasting with hundreds of jobs in the tourist industry surrounding the Buffalo.

    I have sent these comments to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and to the Department of Environmental Quality. (Comment period closes March 17, and you can comment too by emailing Water-Draft-Permit-Comment@adeq.state.ar.us, using Permit #5264-W in the subject line.) I hope they will use this information to facilitate the closing of C&H.

    JAN M. VANSCHUYVER


  • 14 Mar 2017 8:41 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Arkansasonline


     Missing deadline?

    Report on Buffalo

    By Mike Masterson 

    The Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) has set what strikes me as an arbitrary, even premature, deadline of March 17 to end public comment about granting a new and revised operating permit for C&H Hog Farms, operating in our fragile Buffalo National River watershed.

    Oddly enough, the date comes a week shy of our National Park Service providing a pertinent document to what I expect will be the Department of Environmental Quality's rubber-stamped final decision that officially approves the new C&H permit. No surprise there, considering the agency so quickly and quietly approved C&H's initial permit in 2012 without hearing much, if any, relevant public comment.

    The document in question represents the report on what might prove to be a highly relevant 2016 National Park Service-sponsored study by hydrologist Dave Mott.

    Mott was working under contract with the Park Service to complete his report assessing the permitted concentrated animal feeding operation near the Buffalo National River.


    Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, told me his group and others already tried without success to review Mott's report.

    "The findings have a direct bearing on the C&H permit and should be part of the record during this crucial comment period," he said. "But ... the Buffalo National River folks, and/or their higher ups, apparently have embargoed the document."

    Watkins said he and the alliance believe Mott's findings should have been made public even before the Department of Environmental Quality's designated period for public comments.

    "Several folks, including us, have submitted FOIA requests for the report. We were told it will be provided by March 24."

    I join those in hoping the National Park Service bureaucracy will submit Mott's significant report during the state's officially designated opportunity for public input.


    Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.

    Editorial on 03/14/2017

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