By Chad Previch
The Oklahoman

Attorney General Drew Edmondson has issued about two dozen subpoenas to collect land and water samples for pollution related to the poultry industry, an attorney for landowners said Wednesday.

The collections are scheduled for May 5, according to subpoenas acquired by The Oklahoman. The subpoenas require landowners, many of whom raise chickens for companies sued by the attorney general, to allow investigators to collect soil samples, rainfall runoff samples and groundwater samples.

Deadline for protests approaches
Ken Williams, a Tulsa attorney representing some of the farmers who have been subpoenaed, said he has until May 4 to file a protest.

In June, the attorney general sued 14 poultry companies he said were polluting state watersheds. He said chicken litter applied as fertilizer by Oklahoma farmers working for Arkansas companies is polluting water.

Edmondson has said any attempt to delay the discovery process would be inconsistent with the industry's claim that it isn't responsible for pollution.

Charlie Price, spokesman for Edmondson's office, said about 24 subpoenas were sent. He said subpoenas are part of the lawsuit's discovery process as allowed by a judge last month is U.S. District Court in Tulsa.

'This is simply a witch-hunt'
In each field, 20 to 80 samples will be collected from the surface to 6 inches below ground, the subpoenas state. Samples also will be taken at runoff water locations periodically through June 30 after rainfall.

Also, pumps will extract groundwater.

"We still live in a free society and a free country, and there ought to be some limits for the government to come on your place and look for whatever they want to look for," Williams said.

The attorney said most of the farmers he talked to are concerned whether the poultry industry has a future in Oklahoma.

Bev Saunders, a Peterson Farms poultry contract grower in Colcord, was served last week. She said she's disappointed at the distress inflicted to family farmers.

"If the evidence was there, as we've all been told it was, there would be no need for 'discovery,'" she said. "This is simply a witch-hunt."