May 2009

U.S. Water News Online

TULSA, Okla. — A Missouri-based company has agreed to settle its portion of a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson over poultry litter being spread in the Illinois River watershed.

Springfield, Mo.-based Willow Brook Foods Inc. has filed a document in Tulsa federal court proposing to pay $120,000 as part of its settlement.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Charlie Price says Willow Brook had only 16 of the estimated 2,800 poultry houses in the watershed. A settlement would still leave 12 other poultry companies in the attorney general's lawsuit.

Willow Brook has ceased all of its poultry operations since the lawsuit was filed and says in the proposed consent decree that it does not plan to resume operations in the Illinois River watershed.

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