The responsibility for permitting and acting as watchdog over large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOS) in Arkansas appears on the verge of significant changes in rules, making it more challenging for stakeholders to know when and where a CAFO is planned.

Brian Thompson, president of the environmental watchdog Ozark Society, reminded Arkansans of how the Arkansas Department of Agriculture assumed control over this critical responsibility.

"Those reading during the 2014 era will recall the enormous controversy over our state's former Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) quietly permitting a private interest to establish a large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) along a tributary of America's first national river, our popular Buffalo in north central Arkansas," he said.

"That issue was ultimately resolved by the state buying out the CAFO. Now the state's oversight for future CAFO proposals and proper operations statewide is transferred to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture (ADA), a friend rather than watchdog to CAFO owners."

With this change has come a new series of proposed regulation requirements about how those who propose CAFOs must let the public know of them well in advance so interested........

© El Dorado News Times