BY ROBERT J. SMITH

Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/217318/

TULSA — Allowing farmers to spread poultry litter in the Illinois River watershed poses a severe threat to human health, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said in federal court on Tuesday.

Edmondson’s remarks came during the first day of what’s expected to be a seven-day hearing in U. S. District Court in Tulsa. Oklahoma seeks an injunction banning poultry litter from farm fields in the watershed.

The watershed, covering 1, 069, 530 acres, includes portions of eastern Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas.

“We began to develop data concerning the effects of this dumping on human health,” Edmondson told U. S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell. “We feel that data is compelling, and, because of the human health implications, it could not wait until next year.”

A trial on Edmondson’s lawsuit against eight poultry companies with operations in Arkansas is expected in 2009. Edmondson sued the companies in 2005, accusing them of polluting the watershed with poultry litter.

Patrick Ryan, an attorney representing Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, said the injunction isn’t necessary and would put a burden on cattle farmers who’d turn to expensive commercial fertilizer if they aren’t allowed to use poultry litter.

Ryan accused Edmondson’s office and the private attorneys hired to assist it of “creating the science” in an attempt to prove poultry litter is harmful.

“They claim they found a biomarker for poultry and a chemical marker for poultry,” Ryan said in his opening statement. “We believe these theories of theirs are not valid.”

Attorneys for Oklahoma and the poultry companies disagree about who’s got the greater challenge in court. The poultry companies contend the state has the higher burden of proof.

“Attempting to change what’s been the status quo for 50 years places a heavy burden on them,” Ryan said.

Edmondson said the state only needs to prove that poultry litter may be a threat to human health. It doesn’t have to come up with people who can connect an illness they’ve experienced specifically to poultry litter.

Nevertheless, the state’s second witness, Berry Winn, testified that he believes the Illinois River can be linked to the infections he sees at Tahlequah City Hospital where he is medical director.

Winn said he no longer stitches up wounds on people who injure themselves on the river because those wounds end up infected.

“I think that’s significant,” Edmondson said during a break at Tuesday’s hearing. “He’s changed what he does as a physician because of something in the water.”

Winn, however, couldn’t link infections to poultry litter.

Other state witnesses on Tuesday afternoon began trying to make a connection to show poultry litter spread on fields reaches ditches and eventually streams. Once it’s in the water, the bacteria from poultry litter threatens human health, Edmondson said.

Christopher Teaf, associate director of biomedical research at Florida State University, said he’s an expert in human health risk assessment from environmental factors. Poultry litter poses the threat of causing infectious diseases such as campylobacteriosis and enteropathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, Teaf said.

Poultry litter has a tendency to leave fields when it rains, causing the bacteria in it to reach streams, Teaf said. Most poultry litter is spread in the spring, and canoe operations get most of their customers in the late spring and summer.

“It’s not advantageous in terms of human health,” Teaf said. “The application period is now and the recreation period is soon.”

Teaf said he began to form his opinion about poultry litter’s threat months after his research began. He’s been working for the state for 3 1 / 2 years, he said.

“Candidly, at the outset, I was skeptical,” Teaf said. “I’m no longer skeptical.”

Ryan quizzed Oklahoma Secretary of Environment Miles Tolbert about whether cattle could be a large factor in the bacteria found in the Illinois River watershed. Ryan pointed to reports generated by Oklahoma about watersheds for the Canadian, Washita, Upper Red, Lower Red and Neosho rivers that show fecal bacteria most likely comes from livestock.

“Have you brought a lawsuit against the cattle ranchers in those watersheds ?” Ryan asked.

“No,” Tolbert said.

Edmondson said the difference is those other watersheds don’t have people swimming, fishing and canoeing in them.

“Do you know how many canoe operations there are on the Canadian River ?” Edmondson asked Tolbert.

“Not a single one,” Tolbert said.

“Do you know if the other rivers have canoe operations like the Illinois River does ?” Edmondson asked.

“None comes close to the Illinois,” Tolbert said.

The companies fighting the injunction and sued by Edmondson in 2005 are Tyson Foods; Simmons Foods of Siloam Springs; Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis; Cobb-Vantress Inc. of Siloam Springs; George’s Inc. of Springdale; Peterson Farms Inc. of Decatur; Willow Brook Foods of Springfield, Mo.; and Cal-Maine Foods Inc. of Jackson, Miss.

Testimony in the hearing resumes today at 9 a. m. at the U. S. District Courthouse in Tulsa.