The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality says it rejected an operating permit for a hog farm in the Buffalo River watershed because the company didn't conduct a study on the flow direction of groundwater or develop an emergency action plan.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that C&H Hog Farms operates a facility near Mount Judea in Newton County. The farm has a permit to house 6,503 hogs and includes two storage ponds for hog manure and fields where manure is spread as fertilizer.

C&H has been operating on an indefinite extension of its expired permit. The department denied the farm's application for a new permit on Jan. 10, but the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission stayed that decision.

Opponents say rocky terrain makes a hog farm unsuitable for the land.