Arkansas to Review Garbage Proposal

Medium and large hog farms would be banned from the Buffalo National River basin, according to the Harbor Environmental plan that was disclosed late September. The company was elected by the state’s Department of Energy and Environment to formulate a termination plan for C&H Hog Farms.

This summer, the state bought out C&H for $6,200,000, which was caused by raising concerns on the environment and the river about the impact of the farm that holds about 6,000 hogs. The deadline for closure is early February.

Although research has not explicitly named C&H as a cause of the algae in the water flow, critics have declared concern over contamination.

An advocacy group was formed to put an end to pollution and contamination of the river — the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. The group’s president, Gordon Watkins, said that the earth is already supersaturated with phosphorus and manure.  

He said that they would like to notice that some efforts were made to continue supervising Big Creek itself as well as the area of storage ponds. The purpose of that is to observe if ponds were seeping or if phosphorus could keep on draining into Big Creek.   

The due time for comments on this plan is Tuesday, October 15. After that day, the department will determine whether to change it and/or finish it.

There were no comments from C&H owners.

The spokesperson for the department, Jacob Harper, wrote in an email that the further phases would be the termination of the storage pond for manure and sterilization of the facilities.

The plan also invites for destroying the ponds and planting greenery to minimize the risk of erosion.

C&H is situated on the banks of Big Creek, about seven miles from the river mouth with Buffalo.