In December 2012, residents of Newton County, Arkansas were surprised to see a hog farm being built on the banks of Big Creek, a tributary on the Buffalo National River. The state’s Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) had approved a permit for C&H Hog Farms to operate the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). Notice about the farm was published that summer on ADEQ’s website but not in a local newspaper.

Several years of lawsuits and increased environmental activism followed.

Five years later, C&H was required by law to re-submit an application to operate the farm. ADEQ again issued a draft approval of the application. But this time the agency published at least one notice of the draft in a local newspaper — the Newton County Times — and received 19,239 comments in response. (According to ADEQ, 18,422 were “carbon copy comments generated by a national environmental campaign” and 817 were “unique” comments submitted by individuals and organizations.)

After hearing from the public, ADEQ reversed course and denied the permit.

Naturally, C&H wasn’t happy with the ruling and appealed it. In its motion for summary judgment, the company’s attorneys argued with no apparent irony that since ADEQ reversed its original ruling it should have put that decision out for public notice and comment before it was finalized, the Democrat-Gazette reported.

The hog farm saga finally came to an end last month, when Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the state had entered a buyout agreement with C&H’s owners.  “This has been the source of constant controversy and litigation since the beginning,” Hutchinson said, according to the Democrat-Gazette. “It has always been my highest priority to protect the Buffalo River and ensure it as a national treasure far into the future.”

The announcement required no public notice.