Arkansas: New study to require drilling at hog farm

State-hired scientists continued to state that research shows no evidence that C&H Hog Farms is polluting its surrounding environment in the Buffalo River watershed, and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality announced it would commission a study of the facility as requested by opponents of the hog farm. With permission from C&H ownership, the Department of Environmental Quality will contract with a new research team within the next 60 days to assess the clay liners on hog manure storage ponds at C&H in Mount Judea after opponents of the facility expressed concern they were leaking. The department set aside $50,000 for the study but expects to spend between $20,000 and $30,000 for it. The study will consist of drilling in a single spot on C&H grounds to extract samples. The money will come from environmental settlement funds received for water studies and will be used at the discretion of department Director Becky Keogh with permission from Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Keogh said Friday that the research would be conducted in an "open and transparent manner" to supplement and investigate existing research. The announcement by the department comes as C&H opponents question whether researchers hired by the state are biased and as C&H ownership questions whether volunteer researchers working with opponents of the hog farm are biased.