The state of Arkansas is purchasing a conservation easement that will put a hog farm upstream of Buffalo National River out of business/NPS file

Streaming out of the Boston Mountains in northwestern Arkansas, the Buffalo River flows in an arc across the roof of the state, heading north before bending southeasterly, gaining speed as it pours out of the thickly forested and leafy landscape before slowing somewhat as it crosses the tabletop-like Salem and Springfield plateaus.

This rumpled landscape historically was home to the Cherokee, who were forced out in 1828, which opened the landscape to white settlers who began to poke small farmsteads into the forests of oak, pine, and cedar.

For those who settled here, and on up until today, the Buffalo has been a lifeblood and thread through daily life. There was a time in the 1940s and 1950s when proposals to dam the river arose, and it was only the intervention of the National Park Service late in the ‘50s that put those plans to rest.

At the time, the Park Service believed “(T)he Buffalo deserves national attention not for any single quality but for an outstanding combination of qualities. The very base of the river’s appeal lies in its clean, flowing waters, which support a notable sports fishery and provide an opportunity for pleasurable boating and swimming. Its scenery is interesting and often spectacular. It is unspoiled by development and free of pollution.”

By 1968, the Park Service envisioned the Buffalo as the nation’s first “national river,” a unit of the National Park System that would not only keep the river flowing pristine, but its surrounding mountains and the valley it flows through would “yield experiences of a kind and quality that are becoming all too rare in urbanized America.”

Though the Buffalo did become the first national river in 1972, a century after Yellowstone became the world’s first national park, the fact that it encompasses just 11 percent of the entire 1,338-square-mile river basin has led to threats to the Park Service’s intent to “insure sound land use to prevent pollution and scenic damage and to encourage economic farm units on the best agricultural lands.”

Park Service planners knew from the start there could be problems, pointing out that the national river’s boundaries were downhill from “89 percent of the drainage basin.” In other words, any pollution generated up above stood a good chance of eventually flowing into the river down below. Greatly increasing that likelihood is the region’s porous karst geology. This type of formation is composed of easily dissolved rocks, such as limestone and dolomite. Via sinkholes and caves, groundwater – and any pollution it carries -- can flow miles very quickly.

For the past six years a CAFO -- concentrated animal feeding operation -- has been operated about six miles upstream of the river, near Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo. The C&H Hog Farms operation confines about 6,500 pigs at a time. Long-running legal battles waged by river advocacy groups have tried to shut down the operation, and late this spring the battles were before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Now, though, the state of Arkansas has stepped in to shut down the operation by buying out the owners with $6.2 million from the state's rainy day fund to obtain a conservation easement on the land. The move follows an earlier decision by state officials to place a moratorium on other CAFOs in the Buffalo River watershed "due to the historical, cultural, and recreational significance" of the country's first national river.

Since the moratorium came after C&H had begun operations, it wasn't affected by the ban. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was expected Tuesday to formally announce the shutdown plan. Under it, the state Department of Environmental Quality was to take responsibility for closing down the pig farm and removing the liquid animal wastes stored on the grounds.