Attorney: Poultry companies ‘knew better,’ but polluted watershed anyway; trial nears end

Atty: Poultry companies turned watershed into mess

TULSA, Okla. — Motivated by greed, several Arkansas poultry farms cut corners when getting rid of thousands of tons of waste and allowed it to pollute a sensitive watershed, an attorney for the state argued Thursday.

The 11 companies accused of poisoning the Illinois River watershed shared by Oklahoma and Arkansas turned a once-pristine recreational area enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors each year into a “green, slimy mess,” Louis Bullock, an attorney for Oklahoma, said during his closing argument.

“Judge, I’m all in favor of making a buck, but it’s never an excuse to destroy the beauty of this country to make a buck,” he told U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell, who is hearing the trial from the bench.

The state says the companies, including industry giants Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc., for decades disposed of hundreds of thousands of tons of chicken litter each year by giving it to local crop farmers to use as fertilizer. The state says the companies knew the litter — or the feathers, droppings and bedding left in barns after birds are taken to slaughter — was harming the watershed, but that it was cheaper to give it to the farmers than to dispose of it properly.

“They knew better, but they did it anyway,” Bullock said.

Frizzell ruled in Ausust that the state can’t pursue monetary damages, but it is seeking a temporary moratorium on application of the litter to farmland and the appointment of special monitors to ensure the companies properly dispose of the waste.

It was unlikely Frizzell would issue a ruling Thursday.

The industry says it has handled the waste responsibly and lawfully, and that Oklahoma has failed to produce any evidence that the waste threatens people or the environment.

The case is being monitored by other states that are considering challenges to the poultry industry.

The other defendants named in the lawsuit are Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George’s Inc., George’s Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.