End run in Ledge

No permit needed?

Did you read about the latest legislative end run around the existing authority responsible for issuing permits to meat-raising facilities like C&H Hog Farms in Newton County?

Turning into law Sen. Gary Stubblefield’s Senate Bill 550—which would transfer the authority for approval of concentrated animal feeding operations from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (cough) to the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission—would effectively toll the death knell for our treasured Buffalo National River and any streams or natural waters located near such factories.

Yet Stubblefield, a Republican from Branch, insists SB550 has nothing to do with the existing controversy over the Department of Environmental Quality last year denying a Regulation 5 permit to C&H after it failed to submit an environmentally adequate application.

Despite Stubblefield’s insistence that his bill does not involve C&H, I’ve always been stunned at the lengths our state and certain members of the Legislature will go to to protect this single misplaced factory.

Stubblefield, a former dairy farmer, has introduced his wholly unnecessary plan to eliminate permitting requirements altogether for liquid animal waste factories, while moving responsibility for approving potential polluters to the commission (whose leaders apparently didn’t even attend last week’s legislative committee hearing).

Senators could vote on this bad and unnecessary legislation as early as Monday or Tuesday, which means those who truly care about the future of our precious Buffalo should contact their elected representatives immediately.

Gordon Watkins, who heads the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, held few punches: “Stubblefield’s bill weakens existing water and air quality regulations and undermines current efforts to protect the Buffalo National River from degradation due to swine CAFOs and threatens water quality across the state,” he told me. “It does away with permitting requirements for liquid animal waste systems altogether, replacing a permit with mere ‘certification’.”

Watkins said SB550 also removes all CAFOs currently covered under the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission’s Regulation 5 (historically regulated and enforced by the Department of Environmental Quality), instead placing them under the authority of the Natural Resources Commission, apparently without the requirement for possessing a permit at all. All existing Regulation 5 CAFO permits would be transferred effective Jan. 1, 2021.

“SB550 exempts most CAFOs from regulation under the Arkansas Water and Air Pollution Control Act. Moreover, it allows an applicant to ‘waive … public notification period requirements,’” he continued, saying the Department of Environmental Quality “will be consulted only for technical assistance in the event of violations or modifications” despite being “acknowledged as having the greatest expertise in permitting, regulating and enforcing CAFO permits.”

Watkins emphasized that raw-waste application rates to fields have been guided by the Arkansas Phosphorus Index with no regard for agronomic limits. That means sole reliance on this index is known to result in excessive nutrient applications and degraded water quality.

Authority for approving, denying or “certifying” a nutrient management plan would be vested with the local Natural Resources Commission board of directors in the district where the operator lives. C&H is in Newton County where local politics have supported the factory’s presence despite the impaired state of the river that regularly brings million into the impoverished region.

“Just because such a board is ‘local’ does not ensure its members have the necessary expertise to provide adequate technical review of an application,” Watkins understated. “Under Stubblefield’s plan, while having expertise in reviewing nutrient management plans, [the department] will not be consulted before a CAFO is allowed to operate. Only in the event of a violation is [the Department of Environmental Quality] to be consulted.”

He said considerable state resources have been invested over decades to provide the agency with necessary expertise to properly permit, regulate and enforce factory farm operations, and Stubblefield’s bill increases the chance of further contamination of the river by removing the department’s Regulation 5 permit authority and giving greatly weakened oversight to commission members, who do not issue permits.

I cringe (and cough) as I write since the Department of Environmental Quality needlessly created this mess when in 2012 it wrongheadedly granted C&H its initial Regulation 6 permit without insisting on intense testing and oversight in the Ozark environment. Nonetheless, this department is clearly the most qualified to retain authority and oversight over our state’s water-quality permits to better ensure protection of environmental resources.

Please let your elected representatives and our governor know before Tuesday how you feel about Stubblefield’s bill ever becoming a needless law.