Judge refuses to delay Oklahoma pollution trial

TULSA, Okla. - A federal judge has refused to postpone the start of a trial involving a dozen Arkansas poultry companies accused of polluting the Illinois River watershed with chicken waste.

The order issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell means the trial, which could lead to more environmental lawsuits against the multibillion-dollar poultry industry across the U.S., will begin Sept. 21.

The companies recently asked Frizzell to delay the trial because they said they needed more time to handle all the paperwork from Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office. The companies claimed his office had been submitting hundreds of pages of expert testimony and sampling data.

Edmondson, who recently announced his candidacy for Oklahoma governor in next year's election, had opposed delaying the case. He is suing the companies, claiming that bacteria from the over-application of poultry litter in the 1 million-acre watershed leeches into the groundwater, springs and wells.

Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer and one of the companies named in the lawsuit along with its subsidiaries Tyson Poultry Inc. and Tyson Chicken Inc., said it looked forward to defending itself "and the honest farmers who have been attacked by Mr. Edmondson."

"At trial, Mr. Edmondson will have to present evidence instead of political rhetoric," Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said Thursday. "If he has evidence of wrongdoing by farmers who use litter under the permits issued by the state, we have not seen it."

Charlie Price, a spokesman for the attorney general, said Oklahoma was pleased the trial will begin as scheduled and added that the poultry companies have pushed to delay the trial "from every possible angle, but those efforts have been denied by the court."

"Water is a valuable commodity, and it's our duty to protect it from these corporate interests who have no regard for our state's natural resources," Price said in a statement.

Edmondson initially sued 13 companies in 2005, but Springfield, Mo.-based Willow Brook Foods Inc. recently proposed paying $120,000 to settle its portion of the case. The company operated only eight of the 1,800 poultry houses estimated to be in the watershed, and no longer is in the poultry business in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma-Arkansas region supplies roughly 6 percent of the nation's poultry, and is among several areas nationally where the industry is most concentrated.

The other companies named in the lawsuit are Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cal-Maine Foods Inc. and Cal-Maine Farms Inc., Cargill Inc. and Cargill Turkey Production LLC, George's Inc. and George's Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.

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