The version Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office portrayed of his recent meeting with poultry growers in Oklahoma over Illinois water pollution was far different from what one newspaper described.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette headline declared, “Oklahoma AG gets cool reception in meeting with poultry growers.”
The article reported Drummond expressed confidence that poultry companies, many based in Arkansas, would settle the long-standing Oklahoma lawsuit over pollution of the Illinois River. But the crowd of 250 poultry growers “wondered aloud why the 20-year old lawsuit was not settled already–or dropped.”
“Every one of the other defendants has called my office” after George’s Inc. agreed to a settlement in Oklahoma’s lawsuit regarding pollution of the Illinois River, Drummond told the crowd gathered at 2:45 p.m. at the Midcounty Community Building in Westville.
In a late Thursday press release, Drummond’s office quoted the attorney general.
“I very much appreciate the opportunity to have visited with Eastern Oklahoma’s hardworking poultry growers, so many of whom are understandably concerned with so much misinformation being leveled by out-of-state Big Poultry,” Drummond said.
“These big poultry companies—not individual growers—designed, controlled and profited from a system that overapplied waste for decades. Excess nutrients remain in the water that must be cleaned up for the health and future of all Oklahomans.”
George’s Inc. of Springdale and its related business, George’s Farms Inc., are two of 11 defendants in the suit. Oklahoma successfully sued those companies because litter from poultry operations spread phosphorus into the river, the court ruled. Drummond announced the settlement Wednesday.
But the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette stated, “The growers who spoke up at the meeting were not buying Drummond’s argument that the suit was brought against the poultry processing companies with no intention to harm the growers who contract with those companies, supplying the birds.”
“What do we do without the integrators?” demanded Roy Teague of Watts, Okla. Farmers will go bankrupt if the poultry companies stop issuing contracts in the Illinois River watershed — as Tyson Foods Inc. has already announced it will do if acceptable settlement terms are not reached.
Federal Judge Gregory Frizzell’s ruling will impose a court-appointed special master with broad authority to demand whatever measures are needed to clean up the river and have the defendants pay for it. The special master would be in place for 30 years. That and restrictions placed on using poultry litter as fertilizer in the watershed would make poultry production unaffordable, the defendants argue in court documents.
The George’s settlement gives a special master a much more limited role, authority and money with a seven-year mandate and definite caps on how much litter can be applied to lands within the watershed.
Oklahoma Rep. David Hardin, who coordinated the meeting, also showed more of a positive response than reported by the Arkansas-based newspaper. In the Attorney General’s press release about the meeting, he was quoted as calling it a “positive step forward.”
“I appreciate the Attorney General meeting today with farm families and officials from my district and other counties in Eastern Oklahoma,” he said. “This has been a difficult and complicated issue with huge economic implications—farm families and officials wanted the opportunity to discuss their concerns with General Drummond. I am thankful AG Drummond made the time and effort to listen today.”
Click here for Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette