Oklahoma: AG: Dangers in watershed 'still very real'

AG: Dangers in watershed 'still very real'

TULSA, Okla. (AP)--Dangers to human health are "still very real" in the Illinois River watershed because 13 Arkansas-based poultry companies continue to dispose of the bird waste in the river valley, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said.

But a poultry industry spokeswoman says bacteria levels in the 1 million-acre watershed are no greater than they are in the state's other rivers and streams where poultry waste isn't applied.

"You should understand there is a chance you're going to get sick, and the sickness you'll get will be very similar to food poisoning," Edmondson warned would-be visitors next year to the watershed in an interview with The Associated Press. "That's what the EPA tells us and that's what our research tells us.

"The human health effects and dangers are still very real and we remain very concerned about them," he said.

In September, a federal judge denied Oklahoma's request for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the poultry companies from dumping the bird waste in the watershed.

U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell wrote then that Oklahoma "has not yet met its burden of proving that bacteria in the waters of the IRW are caused by the application of poultry litter rather than by other sources, including cattle manure and human septic systems."

Oklahoma is planning to appeal the ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Edmondson sued the companies in 2005, accusing them of treating Oklahoma's rivers like open sewers.

While gathering evidence for the pollution case, which figures to go to trial later in 2009, Edmondson said the state "discovered the excessive land application of poultry waste could be a danger to public health," and argued in court for the injunction earlier this year.

Edmondson had requested an injunction by this year's spring rains, arguing that bacteria found in the waste could pose a health threat to the 155,000 people who recreate in the river valley annually.

September's ruling disappointed many environmentalists, who hoped a damaged ecosystem could begin to heal.

"There's going to be motions to stall this thing for a long time, and who knows how long until the two sides get together," worried Kurt Robinson, president of the nonprofit group Save the Illinois River. "The pollution's coming from somewhere, and it's not coming from a pipeline from hell or some other planet."

Tulsa attorney Gerald Hilsher, chairman of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, said if the state loses its lawsuit and voluntary efforts don't work to help the ecosystem, "I think we're going to have to change the name of our commission and our law to the Oklahoma Un-scenic Rivers Commission."

The injunction could have halted a practice thousands of farmers employed for decades in the watershed, which occupies parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma: Taking the ammonia-reeking chicken waste--clumped bird droppings, bedding and feathers--and spreading it on their land as cheap fertilizer.

It also could have led to similar environmental lawsuits nationwide against the industry, which produced more than 48 billion pounds of chicken in 2006.

The Oklahoma-Arkansas region supplies roughly 2 percent of the nation's poultry, and is one of several areas nationally where the industry is most concentrated. More than 1,800 poultry houses are in the watershed, most of them in Arkansas.

Jackie Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the poultry industry, said the companies remain confident in their legal case, and accused the state of trying "to do away with the poultry industry and the hardworking farmers in eastern Oklahoma."

"There's this nasty picture that's been painted of farmers backing up trucks of litter and dumping it into the water," Cunningham said. "I just don't understand what (the attorney general) wants to happen and what he expects to gain from this."

Companies named in the 2005 complaint include Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Cargill Inc., Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George's Inc., George's Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc., Simmons Foods Inc., Cal-Maine Farms Inc. and Willow Brook Foods Inc.

12/22/08
5 Star OK\12-B