C&H Hog Farms’ permit on Commission’s agenda

The Pollution Control and Ecology Commission will hear a recommendation Friday to send C&H Hog Farms’ denied permit application back out for public comment.

The commission also will hear a proposal to adopt regulation changes to its storage tank regulations that adopt revisions to state law passed by the Legislature in 2017.

Administra t ive Law Judge Charles Moulton recommended last month that C&H’s permit be reopened for public comment because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which denied the permit after the last round of public comments, did not indicate an intent to deny the permit.

In early 2017, about a year after C& H applied for its permit, the department recommended approval of the permit and public comments were then accepted based on the permit and the department’s recommendation. About a year later, the department denied the permit based on concerns raised in comments about C&H’s lack of an emergency response plan or groundwater flow study.

C&H argued the department should have issued a second draft decision for public comment — one recommending denial of the permit. Moulton agreed.

If Moulton’s recommendation is approved by the commission, the hog farm’s permit application would be sent back to the department for approval or a draft decision denying it that would reopen it for public input.

C& H, located on Big Creek, about six miles upstream from where it meets the Buffalo National River, is operating under an expired permit issued under a different, and now-canceled, regulatory program.

The Pollution Control and Ecology Commission meeting will be at 9 a.m. at Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality headquarters, 5301 Northshore Drive, in North Little Rock.