Legacy at risk

I’ve known and respected Gov. Asa Hutchinson for decades, ever since he occupied the 3rd District seat held for 13 terms by my late uncle John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison.

To me and those who know him, Hutchinson’s always been a well-intentioned, capable and honorable man.

That said, I’m concerned the legacy from his career as a dedicated public servant stretching from the U.S. Attorney’s office to Congress to heading the nation’s Drug Enforcement Administration and now as governor is at risk by one major environmental mishap on our Buffalo National River that could define him in the end. It’s an unnecessary risk I’d never accept.

I’m talking about hog waste from C&H Hog Farms, which our Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze) wrongheadedly allowed into the Buffalo watershed, an act Hutchinson’s predecessor Mike Beebe called his greatest regret in office. Today, abundant evidence from credible science-based sources warn a catastrophe is a distinct possibility.

Enormous amounts of waste continually generated by this factory of 6,500 swine leave the river susceptible to calamity caused by anything from flooding to a sinkhole (like the one last month in nearby Harrison). Waste seeping into and through subsurface water also could easily wind up contaminating the river.

Should any of these scenarios transpire on Hutchinson’s watch, the blame will likely rest in perpetuity on his shoulders alone. That risk can—and should—be eliminated while it still can be.

Voting Arkansans realize part of any governor’s role lies in reacting to competing interests and hopefully making the wisest choices for the entire population. Yet, sadly, we’ve embraced a political system where well-connected arm twisters with deep pockets more often than not get the access and considerations they seek.

Special interests have their lobbyists, events, associations, networks and campaign dollars to help further their narrow agendas with those elected to run our government. Everyday Arkansans have only their single voice, unless they band in common cause. Then their cry becomes a deafening chorus. Suddenly those they elected have no choice but to listen and respond.

In the case of this hog factory, the Farm Bureau and the Pork Producers Association regularly prove adept at pulling influential political strings and pushing familiar buttons. They also do their best to convince the rest of us that this meat factory, supplied and supported not by Ma and Pa Kettle but the world’s largest corporate meat packer from Brazil, is another family farm trying to make ends meet in the face of criticisms by raving, emotional environmentalists who supposedly don’t like or appreciate farmers.

I say hogwash. Nothing in such a ham-handed argument could be farther from the truth. Most Arkansans appreciate their farms, farmers and the country’s first national river at the same time. And no one, especially me, believes the family that owns and operates this hog factory isn’t doing its best to do so properly.

No, our state set the grossly inadequate requirements then quietly pushed this deal through without insisting upon careful water-flow and subsurface studies beforehand. Nor did they accurately calculate how many millions of gallons of hog waste could safely be spread onto finite fields around a major tributary of the Buffalo (waste that invariably seeps into the water table and porous karst). As a result, we wound up in this endless and controversial mess.

Can you imagine placing an equivalent human city of 30,000 on a karst-riddled hilltop above a major Buffalo tributary without a sewer system to safely cleanse the enormous amount of raw waste continuously flowing into the surrounding air, ground and water? It’s beyond absurd.

This serious matter never has been about the Newton County family who owns the factory. It revolves solely around this being the worst place in Arkansas to implant a factory that, whether admitted by politicians or special interests or not, today poses a very real threat to the purity of the national river just 6 miles downstream.

Since our sacred river can’t speak for itself, nonprofit groups such as the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Ozark Society, the Canoe Club and Ozark River Stewards, along with others like University of Arkansas geosciences professor emeritus John Van Brahana and his team of intrepid volunteers, thankfully have stepped into the gap to, well, carry her water.

What can be done about this horror story needlessly created by the self-proclaimed guardians of our state’s environmental quality administered by politicized appointees?

At this point, we need a governor staunch and courageous enough to inform every relevant special interest: “Sorry folks, but the welfare of the country’s first national river surpasses your political agendas,” then find an honorable way to resolve this mess. Otherwise, as Dr. Brahana and others already are finding, it’s but a matter of time until our beautiful Buffalo becomes contaminated. Tick-tock.