Serving Arkansas Clients For More Than 50 Years

Current Matters Of Significance

Challenge To Permit For Hog Farm CAFO In Buffalo River Watershed

Richard Mays represented the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and the Arkansas Canoe Club in the fight to challenge the permitting and continued operation of the C&H Hog Farm, a confined animal feeding operation with over 6,000 hogs, in the Buffalo River watershed.

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Fight To Prevent Development Of Intermodal Authority On 800 Acres Of Floodplain In Arkansas River Valley

The River Valley Intermodal Authority proposes to develop a large intermodal transportation facility consisting of railroad, highway and river port freight movement and exchange terminals on 800 acres of floodplain adjacent to the Arkansas River in Pope County.

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Challenge To Expansion Of Interstate 30 Through The Greater Little Rock Area

The Federal Highway Administration and the Arkansas Department of Transportation propose to expand Interstate 30 for seven miles through Little Rock and North Little Rock, including a new bridge over the Arkansas River, to eight lanes or more.

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Richard Mays Law Firm Retained To Fight Limestone Quarry

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC has been retained by the Cross Hollows Preservation Association to represent it in litigation against the owner of land in Northwest Arkansas and Anchor Stone Co., a quarry operator, to prevent them from opening a limestone quarry in an area of Benton County that is largely residential and has historical and environmental significance.

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Challenging Corps of Engineers Denial Of Authority To Develop Property Near Flowage Easement

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC has filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the U.S. District Court in Little Rock on behalf of a Texas-based company, challenging the Corps’ denial of permission for the company to construct a $40 million student housing project on land adjacent to a Corps flowage easement near Lake Dardanelle in Pope County.

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Environment And Natural Resources Law In The Media


Photo Of Richard H. Mays

Richard Mays Fights Pigs, Pollution and Plans For Bigger Highways

By Leslie Newell Peacock – Arkansas Times

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Challenge to Permit of Hog Farm CAFO in Buffalo River Watershed

Richard Mays represented the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and the Arkansas Canoe Club in the fight to challenge the permitting and continued operation of the C&H Hog Farm, a confined animal feeding operation with over 6,00 hogs, in the Buffalo River watershed.

he Buffalo River is the Nation’s first designated National River, and is one of Arkansas’ prime environmental attractions. Pollution of the River would be a major disaster for the natural beauty of the area, which generates some $60 million in annual revenue in tourism.

Initially permitted in 2012 through a General Permit that required no public notice, C&H is the most controversial facility in the State. Upon the expiration of the General Permit, C&H applied for an individual permit under Regulation 5 of the Arkansas Pollution Control & Ecology Commission, which required public notice and generated some 20,000 public comments, most of which were against issuance of the permit.

Richard Mays Law Firm’s attorneys have been involved in fighting the issuance of a new permit to the hog farm since 2016. After a long administrative battle, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality denied C&H’s application for the permit on January 10, 2018. C&H appealed that denial to the Commission, and the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and Arkansas Canoe Club, through Richard Mays Law Firm, intervened in that appeal to support the Department’s denial of the permit.

In June, 2019, the state of Arkansas negotiated an agreement with C&H to purchase a conservation easement on C&H’s property for $6.2 million, thereby bringing C&H’s hog farm operation to an end, but allowing C&H to avoid losses and bringing the litigation to a close. Richard Mays Law Firm’s efforts in maintaining pressure on C&H through the litigation were attributed by the State to have been instrumental in allowing this settlement to be achieved.

Fight to Prevent Development of an Intermodal Authority on 800 acres of Floodplain in the Arkansas River Valley

Richard Mays Law Firm led a 15-year fight against a proposal by the River Valley Intermodal Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a large intermodal facility on 800 acres of floodplains adjacent to the Arkansas River in Pope County, Arkansas. A dike would be constructed around the facility, potentially causing flooding on the opposite bank where the City of Dardanelle and a wildlife refuge are located.

The City of Dardanelle and the Yell County Wildlife Federation turned to Richard Mays Law Firm to represent their interests in the early 2000s. The Authority and Corps of Engineers initially prepared an Environmental Assessment in 2001, which Mays challenged in Federal Court, resulting in a finding that the EA did not comply with NEPA requirements, and an injunction against construction.

Over the next ten years, the Authority and the Corps made several attempts at developing an Environmental Impact Statement. In 2017, the Federal Court found that the Corps’ final EIS had taken the necessary “hard look” at the potential environmental impacts and approved it. However, no work has been done on the project.

Challenge to the Expansion of Interstate 30 Through the Greater Little Rock Area

The Federal Highway Administration and the Arkansas Department of Transportation propose to expand Interstate 30 for seven miles through Little Rock and North Little Rock, including a new bridge over the Arkansas River, to eight lanes or more. Referred to as “the 30 Corridor Project,” it is estimated to cost just under $1 billion, and will be the largest civil works project ever undertaken in the State of Arkansas.

Opinion on the advisability of the project is widely divided in the area. Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC environmental attorneys have been selected by a group of community leaders and neighborhood associations that would be impacted by the project to fight the development.

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC attorneys filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on behalf of more than a dozen individuals and neighborhood associations representing residents of the area in which the construction is proposed. The Complaint raises numerous faults in the Environmental Assessment prepared by the State Highway Department and the Federal Highway Administration, and asks that the EA and the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) be voided and the agencies ordered to perform an Environmental Impact Statement. Links to the Complaint and subsequent major pleadings filed in the case may be found here.

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette released a great article regarding Richard Mays’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction that was filed in the lawsuit against expansion of I-30 through Little Rock-North Little Rock. You can find that article here. There is also a brief available from Mays in Support of the Preliminary Injunction and that can be found below as well.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette Article

Brief in Support of Preliminary Injunction

Richard Mays Law Firm Retained To Fight Limestone Quarry

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC has been retained by the Cross Hollows Preservation Association to represent it in litigation against the owner of land in Northwest Arkansas and Anchor Stone Co., a quarry operator, to prevent them from opening a limestone quarry in an area of Benton County that is largely residential, and has historical and environmental significance. In addition, a number of endangered or threatened species are listed as having habitats in the area.

The property has been used for years as a “red dirt” mine, in which soils on the surface of the property are excavated for fill in other areas. However, the owner of the property and his lessee, Anchor Stone, applied for and was granted authority by the County Planning Commission to mine the underlying limestone, which would involve frequent blasting and crushing of rock, which would dramatically affect the nearby residential areas, with other possible environmental effects.

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC, working with a local law firm, has already filed several appeals from the Planning Commission decision challenging the legal basis of the decision. Those appeals are pending.

Richard Mays Law Firm Challenges Corps of Engineers Denial of Authority to Develop Property Near Flowage Easement

Richard Mays Law Firm PLLC has filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the U.S. District Court in Little Rock on behalf of a Texas-based company, challenging the Corps’ denial of permission for the company to construct a $40 million student housing project on land adjacent to a Corps flowage easement near Lake Dardanelle in Pope County.

The project is located near Arkansas Tech University, and would provide much-needed housing for over 500 students with many amenities. The Corps’ flowage easement covers land between the proposed development and the University, and the Corps claims that the project would interfere with the easement. The suit challenges that Corps’ authority to veto the project since it is not located in the easement itself. The suit also challenges the Corps’ lack of a sound engineering basis for its denial.

The case is Russellville Legends LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Docket No. 4:19cv524 BSM