February 14, 2008 11:24 am

Poultry companies defend use of litter as fertilizer

By TEDDYE SNELL

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS —

In defense of the use of poultry litter as a natural fertilizer by farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma and Arkansas, poultry companies yesterday filed a response in federal court to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s November 2007 motion.
Edmondson’s request was for a preliminary injunction that would completely stop the land application of poultry litter in the entire one million-acre Illinois River Watershed.
“Poultry litter is one of the best forms of fertilizer available,” said Jackie Cunningham, director of community relations for the Poultry Community Council. “Contract poultry producers, not the poultry companies, are the ones who own the litter. They use it as a natural fertilizer and soil amendment for their crops, and also profit from the litter they don’t use by selling it as a fertilizer to others.”
Edmondson took issue with Cunningham’s remarks.
“Once again, the defendant poultry companies’ first thought is to dump the blame on the grower,” said Edmondson. “Big poultry’s legal and public relations strategy from the beginning has been to hide behind the farmer. They point the finger of pollution at anyone but themselves.”
The companies’ response points to the preliminary injunction as an “extraordinary remedy” that cannot be supported by evidence of any actual harm or “imminent danger” proved.
“Most telling is what is not in the poultry companies response,” said Edmondson. “They do not deny their poultry pollution is causing the public health dangers and environmental harm we allege in our lawsuit.
“Our scientists discovered evidence that the poultry companies’ reckless waste dumping methods are contributing to high levels of bacteria in the waters of the Illinois River Watershed. We can show that fecal bacteria from poultry waste is reaching the surface water and groundwater. We can point to areas where the bacterial counts in runoff water from poultry waste disposal fields were similar to those found in raw, untreated human sewage.”
Cunningham dismissed Edmondson’s remarks as being “false generalities.”
“Despite the significant number of people who recreate in the river and Tenkiller Lake and the numerous homes using water wells, Oklahoma health officials and experts admit there is not a single person who has suffered any documented adverse health effect from the use of poultry litter in the Illinois River Watershed,” said Cunningham.
Edmondson believes this argument has been employed before when Big Tobacco was under fire.
“Poultry’s argument that the state cannot point to a single person who has become sick from their pollution is the same argument the tobacco companies made when we accused them of giving people cancer,” said Edmondson. “Our concern is for the health of the citizens who drink from wells and springs or swim and fish in the Illinois River Watershed. We believe that will also be the court’s concern, even if the poultry companies do not share that priority.”
Edmondson believes the truth will out during the upcoming court proceedings.
“Both sides will stand before the federal court next week,” said Edmondson. “The state will stand behind facts, statistics, science and the law. Who will the corporate polluters hide behind?”