Final briefs in Oklahoma’s 20-year fight with Arkansas and Oklahoma poultry growers over pollution of the Illinois River were due on Monday in Tulsa U.S. District Court.
It’s the case started in 2005 by then-Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and carried out by current Attorney General Gentner Drummond. Drummond’s recently proposed final judgment in the case of State of Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods Inc. created a firestorm in the poultry industry when he suggested a total ban of poultry litter as fertilizer on any field with a more than 65 STP or soil test phosphorous.
“The Attorney General’s proposal threatens to shut down a farming practice that has safely fed American families for generations,” claimed Marvin Childers, president of the Poultry Federation in reaction to the AG’s filing.
“It targets the use of poultry litter, a safe and natural fertilizer, despite decades of expert evidence and state-approved best management practices. Oklahoma’s farmers and private landowners, from grain and cattle producers to fruit growers, have consistently adhered to regulatory guidelines.”
Drummond also proposed a $103 million fine against Arkansas poultry companies and a 30-year river cleanup plan but Arkansas poultry farmers contend their operations do not contribute to the pollution of the river and they would suffer financially if the ruling were to be approved.
The filing deadline this week came after U.S. District judge Gregory K. Frizzell ruled “conditions have not materially changed inthe Illinois River Watershed” since the case went to trial in 2010. He determined the polllution from poultry farmers is still harming the Illinois river, Lake Tenkiller and connected waterways.
Drummond is hoping for a final decision from the judge before the end of the year and the rulling is one ordering corporations to immediately stop spreading poultry waste on the land in the Illinois River Watershed.
“My objective in the end is we continue to have a vibrant poultry industry in Oklahoma and we have a path through which the watershed is rehabilitated and healed,” he told the Oklahoma Voice in June.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, something of an adversary of the Attorney General has professed he is “100% against” the lawsuit and has described th lawsuit as a move to “get a pound of flesh” from the poultry industry which he also claims is following the law.