TULSA, Okla — There are new twists and turns in a decades-long lawsuit between the State of Oklahoma and poultry producers.
In January 2023, Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled that Arkansas-based Tyson foods and other poultry companies polluted the Illinois River watershed, caused a public nuisance, and trespassed by spreading poultry litter on land in Eastern Oklahoma. Nutrients from the chicken waste then leached into the watershed.
That ruling was from a trial that ended in 2010.
On December 3, in a federal courtroom, poultry industry lawyers and a state legal team headed up by Oklahoma's Attorney General are before Judge Frizzell again, this time for an evidentiary hearing.
Now, the poultry producers want the ruling thrown out.
On day one of what will likely be a multi-week hearing, the first three witnesses' testimony focused on phosphorus pollution in the watershed since the original trial ended.
Phosphorus is one of the nutrients that leaches out of chicken litter spread on the ground. When it runs off into the watershed, it lowers water clarity and oxygen levels and increases algae growth.
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