Buffalo impaired

We’ve been warned for years by hydrogeologists, geoscientists and others who understand disease-causing bacteria and contamination of waterways.

Now over 14 miles of our unique Buffalo National River is categorized in a draft list as being impaired. That means one section near the center of the river, which winds through the Ozarks for 150 miles, contains levels of pathogens beyond acceptable water-quality standards.

To that add some 15 miles of similarly impaired Big Creek, a major tributary of the majestic river that flows adjacent to the controversial C&H Hog Farms. Big Creek is said to have abnormally elevated levels of pathogens, except for the final 3.7 miles before its confluence with the Buffalo 6.8 miles from the factory. That section was labeled impaired because of low dissolved oxygen levels, a condition harmful to aquatic life caused by an overload of nutrients, aka fertilizer.

Our Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) that wrongheadedly allowed this factory with up to 6,500 swine to set up shop in the Buffalo watershed in 2012, issued its impaired streams 303(d) draft list last week, saying the source of the pathogens is unknown.

Though its owners, their lawyers, and the Farm Bureau deny it, many (including geoscience experts such as John Van Brahana, who’s conducted subsurface water flow studies in the watershed since 2012) believe the hog factory’s ongoing presence is behind much of what’s being documented today. The factory continually sprays millions of gallons of raw waste onto fields along Big Creek that lie atop a leaky karst subsurface.

Moreover, because it placed the Buffalo on its category 4b impaired list (under the five 303(d) classifications), the Department of Environmental Quality has no responsibility to track the source. That’s flatly unacceptable.

What’s at stake economically? In 2017, nearly 1.5 million people visited the Buffalo, spending $62.6 million which supports 911 jobs, according to the National Park Service.

So yet again, our state agency responsible for ensuring “environmental quality” has opted to react politically and shirk its obligation by finally acknowledging we have a growing contamination problem in the Buffalo’s watershed, then not aggressively moving to resolve it.

The algae blooms in the Buffalo have become medically serious. Some of the thick green mess contains strains of bacteria that can sicken those who get it into their mouths. It’s not a pretty situation any way you maneuver to paddle around the problem.

I asked Gordon Watkins, who heads the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, what he thinks about the 4b designation. He said he finds it encouraging that the agency “finally recognizes Big Creek and adjacent portions of the Buffalo are now impaired due to low dissolved oxygen (a sign of nutrient overloading) and pathogens, but it’s disappointing they placed them in category 4b, which essentially means the state bears no responsibility to investigate or address the source.”

Watkins, whose group with a coalition of others is concerned about maintaining quality in the Buffalo, said the reasoning for the draft 4b designation is because other entities who lack authority to rectify it supposedly are addressing the problem and that “alternative plans are in place.” Therefore, the agency has no obligation to pinpoint the source and provide enforcement to clean up the growing mess.

“Presumably, that alternative plan includes the recent Buffalo National River Watershed Management Plan, which is ironic,” Watkins said, “because the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (originator of the watershed management plan) went to great lengths earlier this year to avoid including Big Creek on its top six prioritized streams because at that time it wasn’t officially considered impaired.”

Plus, he added, the management plan specifically excludes point sources or permitted facilities, such as C&H, from consideration as the cause.

Others listed as supposedly “monitoring” Big Creek, Watkins said, include his nonprofit group, the Buffalo National River with a single station, the U.S. Geological Survey with a couple of stations on Big Creek, and the Big Creek Research and Extension Team (which has a questionable record of adequate monitoring).

However fragmented and limited the monitoring, I’m not alone in believing the intent of passing the buck is to shift responsibility and avoid any finding which might involve C&H. “Of course, these monitoring entities have no enforcement authority. So even if evidence is found that C&H is polluting, nothing can be done about it,” said Watkins.

Big Creek and impaired segments of the river clearly should be placed in Category 5 of the 303(d) list, which will be finalized after the public comment period ends in September.

Doing so would require establishing total maximum daily loads for contaminants in the streams and provide enforcement authority to specifically identify and correct the source.

“The first step is to recognize the problem exists. That’s now been done,” said Watkins. “Next is not to say yes, it’s impaired, but we’re not going to act to rectify that. The whole idea is to find the cause and remove our national river and its tributary from the impaired list.”