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TULSA, Okla. -- Poultry companies will be asked to pay for the removal of chicken waste from sensitive watersheds as an alternative to litigation, Oklahoma's environmental secretary says.
The companies have made it clear ``they will not accept technical legal liability for the action of their contract growers,'' state Secretary of Environment Brian Griffin said at the 23rd annual Oklahoma Governor's Water Conference.
``That's a deal-breaker, a line in the sand,'' he said. ``If we force them to take that liability, they'll fight that all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.''
For decades, contract chicken farmers have been applying chicken waste to pastures as fertilizer. Excessive phosphorus, which is linked to the chicken waste, is blamed for degrading the water quality of Oklahoma lakes and scenic rivers.
``There are a lot of things the companies can do with the (waste) -- gasify it, pelletize it, or compost it. But first you have to bank it, get it off the fields to a safe storage area, then get it out of the watershed,'' Griffin said.
``We don't care how you do it. We just want you to take financial responsibility to deal with it.''
Attorney Charles Shipley, who represents a class-action lawsuit brought against poultry companies for waste pollution to Grand Lake, called Griffin's plan, calling it ``weak-kneed.''
``Without having the (poultry companies) being held liable for the waste generated by the contract growers for their industry, I think you get less than half a loaf,'' Shipley said.
``We avoid actual relief by avoiding the issue of their liability.''
One of Tulsa's main drinking water sources, Lake Eucha, has been affected by the phosphorus loads, creating chronic taste and odor episodes that have cost the city millions to treat.
City officials are suing the city of Decatur, Ark., and six poultry companies.
Efforts to reduce pollution in the Illinois River without litigation have not improved the river.
``Instead of seeing an improvement in water quality of the scenic river, we've seen a deterioration, just the opposite,'' he said.
Also at the conference, the executive director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board said limiting allowable amounts of phosphorus in Oklahoma's scenic rivers to 0.037 milligrams per liter ``was critical'' in getting neighboring Arkansas to negotiate what should be done about poultry waste.
``They have come back with a proposal that is very similar to what Oklahoma does today through our Department of Agriculture -- soil testing, litter applications, licensing applicators. And they want to go a step further than that, and deal with commercial fertilizers,'' Duane Smith said in his ``State of the State's Water'' address.
Smith also said the board has financed grants and loans totaling more than $1 billion to pay for water and wastewater systems serving cities, towns and rural water districts in Oklahoma.
The plan also looks at drought preparedness, regional systems, groundwater recharges, flood plain management and water use dispute resolutions.
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