BY DAVID IRVIN

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/217434/

Larry Emerson thought he had done everything right.

For a decade, he hauled poultry litter off his farms near Tahlequah, Okla., to areas outside the Illinois River watershed. He tried to prevent runoff and cooperated with authorities who tested his groundwater.

Emerson, 59, became an early casualty this week in a battle between Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and the poultry companies he claims are polluting the Illinois River.

Emerson, the only Oklahoma turkey farmer for Springfield, Mo.-based Willow Brook Foods Inc., was told by the company Tuesday that his services were no longer needed. He and his wife, Linda, are seven years away from paying off their land.

“I thought at least we would always be able to retire if we did a good job for whoever we were with. I never dreamed that the state of Oklahoma would take away our income,” Emerson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his farm.

Privately held Willow Brook isn’t represented by attorneys at U. S. District Court in Tulsa this week, where Oklahoma seeks a preliminary injunction to ban the spreading of poultry litter on farm fields.

Jay Jorgensen, an attorney representing defendant Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, told Judge Gregory Frizzell that Willow Brook decided to no longer operate in the watershed rather than fight against the federal lawsuit filed by Edmondson in 2005. The company asked Jorgensen to advise Frizzell.

“The reason they are not here is cost of litigation and they are closing their operations in Oklahoma,” Jorgensen told Frizzell.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Mike Briggs, president of Willow Brook, would not confirm the company is ending its operations in Oklahoma, citing his need to discuss the situation with his attorney.

A call placed to Briggs’ attorney, Jennifer Griffin, was not returned by press time.

Though he wouldn’t name Emerson, Briggs did confirm that Willow Brook contracts with only one farmer in Oklahoma. Willow Brook contracts with four farmers in Arkansas, but none are in the Illinois River Watershed, which is fed by tributaries in eastern Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas.

Frizzell said it’s “risky” for Willow Brook not to be represented in the court, or to have a representative attend this week’s hearing.

“One has to question that, but that’s their choice,” Frizzell said.

Willow Brook employs about 1, 200 in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas at facilities that include a hatchery, slaughterhouse and feed mill. The company was formed in 1998 when Tyson Foods divested the turkey segment of Hudson Foods Inc., which it bought that year. Emerson raised between 70, 000 and 80, 000 turkeys a year for Willow Brook on his two farms — one about 12 miles north of Tahlequah, and the other 15 miles northeast of the town. Emerson has some cattle, which he hopes will generate enough cash until he can draw Social Security benefits. “I’m hoping to hold on. It’s going to be close,” Emerson said.

To contact this reporter: dirvin@arkansasonline. com —————— • ——————Information for this article was contributed by Robert Smith of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.