U.S. Water News Online
PRYOR, Okla. -- Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of property owners along Grand Lake should be added to a lawsuit accusing three Arkansas poultry companies of polluting the water, plaintiffs' lawyers told a judge.
Mayes County District Judge James Goodpaster will decide whether all lakefront property owners can be included in a class alleging Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods and Peterson Farms have created a private and public nuisance.
Four people who own property on the northeast Oklahoma lake allege the companies' poultry operations are tainting the lake with an oily scum and excessive algae growth.
They are seeking an injunction and damages on allegations the pollution has depressed property values. The hearing on the issue could take three days.
Attorney David Brower said legal precedent required the judge to decide only if all lakefront property owners could claim in general to be affected by the poultry companies' alleged actions -- not the merit of the allegations themselves.
``Deciding questions of who is right and wrong in the lawsuit is clearly forbidden'' during the hearing, said Brower, who represented the property owners.
All property owners share a common interest in the lake whether they prefer to use it for swimming, fishing or admiring the scenery, he said.
``These people have made an investment in the lake by virtue of their purchase of the property,'' Brower said.
But Tyson attorney Stratton Taylor disputed his claims, telling the judge the property owners are too diverse and have too many conflicts of interest to be included in a single class.
It would be a ``nightmare'' to assign any damages when the property size and uses vary widely, said Taylor, who also serves as a state senator. A 1,000-acre ranch, for example, sits alongside individual residential lots, he said.
``Is property that is on an individual lot different from property that has a boat dock?'' he asked.
Some property owners could even have conflicts because of their own contribution to pollution through fertilizer application, leaking septic tanks and improper construction, Taylor said.
The plaintiffs accuse Tyson Foods in the original lawsuit of discharging millions of gallons of wastewater from its processing plant near Noel, Mo., into the Elk River.
The river flows from Missouri into Oklahoma and into Grand Lake, which covers more than 46,500 acres in Delaware, Mayes and Ottawa counties.
According to a 2001 Oklahoma Water Resources Board water quality report, the wastewater discharge at Elk River contains elevated levels of ammonia, phosphorous, nitrates and algae.
The lawsuit also alleges that a Simmons' processing plant near the Oklahoma-Missouri line discharges pollution-causing wastewater into a Grand Lake tributary.
And it alleges contract farms for all three companies contribute to the lake's problems by depositing poultry waste on the land.
In March, the city of Tulsa settled a lawsuit accusing the three companies, along with three other Arkansas poultry firms and the city of Decatur, Ark., of tainting its drinking water supply.
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