Negotiations with Tyson Foods and other large poultry producers began in 2001 to address chicken litter-caused water pollution in the Illinois River Watershed. The Environmental Protection Agency has recognized that nutrient pollution caused by phosphorus is one of America’s most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems. But during negotiations, poultry companies made offers they knew the state would not accept. So, as the calendar turned to 2005, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson finally filed a lawsuit.
Nearly 20 years later, that lawsuit is still unresolved. A judge ruled last year in favor of the state and ordered the companies to hold settlement talks with the state in an effort to come up with new standards for controlling chicken litter-caused pollution. Those negotiations ended without an agreement. Edmondson (now in private practice) remarked “ I didn’t think they would agree to anything, just keep trying to delay this thing. They won’t change their ways unless they are paid to or made to .”
Meanwhile during Oklahoma’s 2024 legislative session, House Bill 4118 was passed, which stifles lawsuits against poultry corporations for water pollution. Rep. Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa, noted that, “What this does is allow these poultry integrators (like Tyson) — that are not based in Oklahoma, by the way — to use our state as a disposal site for their poop. And it goes into our lands, it goes into our water, it goes into our aquifers. And they are not held accountable.”…