Twenty years ago, Oklahoma’s then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued 13 poultry companies in federal court for improper poultry litter disposal and environmental damage to the state’s water by poultry businesses mostly in Arkansas, and specifically over the Illinois River watershed.

once referred to as the “Busload of Lawyers” case for all the attorneys required to represent all he parties, the case has remained alive in the Northern District of Oklahoma, but the end may now be in sight.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has proposed a final judgment to the federal court that would have poultry companies remaining in the case pay more than $100 million for poultry litter pollution in the Illinois River Watershed (IRW).

Federal Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled in favor of Oklahoma in January 2023, previously stating in findings that “the principal contributor of these elevated phosphorus levels in waters of IRW is run-off from poultry waste.”  

The proposed judgment also seeks fines of $10,000 per day for each poultry company violation that occurred at various times between the late 1990s and 2005.

Proposed fines by the company  include:

• Tyson Foods Inc. – $28,910,000
• Cargill Inc. – $23,690,000
• Simmons Foods Inc. – $27,160,000
• Cal-Maine – $18,270,000

Judge Frizzell has been with the case, officially known as State of Oklahoma v Tyson Foods Inc., since day one.  He’s given the defendants several weeks to respond.  After Frizzell ruled in favor of Oklahoma, mediation was tried to settle the case, but that failed, leaving the long-running litigation unsettled. 

The Illinois River is a 145-mile-long tributary of the Arkansas River in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Oklahoma has long blamed Arkansas for polluting the river.  The watershed encompasses 1,069,530 total acres — approximately 1,600 square miles.  The Illinois River is designated as a  Scenic River. Lake Tenkiller — Tenkiller Ferry Reservoir — was formed by impounding the Illinois River in 1953, a public water supply source for area municipalities.

Poultry litter is a mixture of chicken manure, spilled feed, feathers and bedding materials used in poultry houses. Poultry litter is used in confinement buildings for raising broilers, turkeys and other birds. The state’s proposed settlement calls for a watershed monitoring team to oversee poultry litter application. It might continue for 30 years.

“A restriction of 65 lbs/acre STP (soil test phosphorus) for land application of poultry waste is appropriate and necessary to limit the land application of poultry waste to a level that provides the true agronomic need for plants to reduce the phosphorus run-off that pollutes the waters of the IRW,” the filing said.

After his 2023 ruling, the poultry companies asked that the case be dismissed because laws have changed since it was brought in 2005.

Edmondson, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Oklahoma in 2010, initially sought a monetary award of $800 million plus punitive damages.  Frizzell ruled that Oklahoma could not seek monetary damages without the involvement of the Cherokee Nation because the tribe’s lands surround the watershed. He was upheld by the 10th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Edmonson sued Tyson, Cargill, Cobb-Vantress, Aviagen, Cal-Maine Foods, George’s, Peterson Farms, Simmons Foods, Willow Brook Foods, and all their various subsidiaries on June 13, 2005.

From the beginning, the civil case was about damages to Oklahoma from the widespread water pollution from poultry companies located mainly in Arkansas. 

The case went to trial before federal Judge Gregory K. Frizzell on Sept. 21, 2009, ending on Feb. 18, 2010. 

Frizzell waited 10 years before saying anything about a ruling. In early 2020, just a few days before the pandemic was identified, the judge said he was polishing a 250-page opinion.  After the pandemic was mainly over, in 2023, he finally published that ruling for nine poultry companies with operations in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, finding the companies produced chicken manure and used it as fertilizer, causing excessive phosphorus runoff polluting Lake Tenkiller, the Illinois River, and other scenic waterways in Oklahoma.

Fizzell’s long-awaited ruling fell short of barring the use of chicken manure as fertilizer, but chicken companies were warned to limit their use. The judge initially gave the defendants a deadline to remedy the situation in Oklahoma.

But that deadline was allowed to slip. Judge Fizzell wants the parties to come up with a plan that will both restore the watershed and control any future pollution.

AG Drummond, a Republican,  said Fizzell’s Jan. 9, 2023, ruling was a “great and historic day for Oklahoma.”