Beebe wants voice in state’s poultry lawsuit

BY ROBERT J. SMITH

Posted on Wednesday, May 3, 2006

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Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe asked to intervene Tuesday in a federal lawsuit filed against eight poultry companies because of its impact on farmers.

Beebe said in a telephone interview that his court filing is “basically the same thing” filed last year with the U. S. Supreme Court. In November, he asked the nation’s highest court to take up the case as a battle between states, but the Supreme Court refused.

“The Supreme Court didn’t rule on the merits, notwithstanding what [Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson ] said in his press release,” Beebe said. “That doesn’t mean the arguments aren’t sound. We still think they are sound, and it’s the same argument.”

Beebe argues the Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission should be dealing with the water-quality dispute between the states. He wants a federal judge to allow Arkansas to intervene and then dismiss the claims affecting legal farming practices in Arkansas.

Edmondson argued that Beebe’s desire to get involved in the case is political.

“This is nothing more than political gamesmanship,” Edmondson said. “Attorney General Beebe needed to generate some media about how hard he is working to combat the lawsuit. This is politics, pure and simple.” Beebe, a Democrat running for governor, said his involvement isn’t political. In March, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, encouraged Beebe to fight Edmondson’s “irrational and crazed obsession” with poultry companies with operations in Arkansas.

“This is an action we’ve been calling for and we commend the AG for seeking to stop the insanity from the Oklahoma attorney general,” Huckabee said through spokesman Alice Stewart. GOP gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson has criticized Beebe for not intervening in the suit.

“I’m pleased that the attorney general has finally taken the steps I called for months ago,” Hutchinson said. “This has been long awaited — the voice of the Arkansas farmer needs to be heard in this case.”

Janet Wilkerson, a spokesman for the poultry companies being sued, said in a statement that she welcomes Beebe’s effort to “protect the rights of farmers and citizens of Arkansas.”

“We are glad that Attorney General Beebe is here to lend his voice to some very important legal issues, including the extent to which one state can force its laws on the citizens of another state,” she said.

Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton, who runs a poultry farm near Prairie Grove for Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods, said Beebe should be involved in the federal lawsuit and stand up for farmers.

“You could have a bunch of people in Springdale unemployed and countless bankruptcies all over,” Hunton said. “Does that fall into the category of something that state government should be worried about ? I think so.”

Edmondson also called Beebe’s efforts a “blatant attempt to curry favor with the powerful Arkansas poultry industry.”

“It appears Attorney General Beebe’s race for governor has taken precedence over his legal judgment,” Edmondson said in a news release. “The U. S. Supreme Court has already rejected his argument that the compact commission is the proper venue.”

Huckabee called Edmondson “an ambitious politician who has failed to act in good faith or act like a good neighbor.”

Edmondson sued eight poultry companies in June, accusing them of polluting the Illinois River watershed with poultry litter. The companies sued by Oklahoma in U. S. District Court in Tulsa are Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis; Cobb-Vantress Inc. of Siloam Springs; George’s Inc. of Springdale; Peterson Farms Inc. of Decatur; Simmons Foods; Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale; Willow Brook Foods of Springfield, Mo.; and Cal-Maine Foods Inc. of Jackson, Miss.

The 1, 645-square-mile watershed, which includes large portions of Benton and Washington counties, is 45 percent in Arkansas. Poultry companies like Tyson Foods are among the state’s largest employers.

The majority of the watershed is in eastern Oklahoma where the Illinois River holds the state’s highest environmental protection. Scenic stretches of the river are sought after by tourists for canoeing.

Edmondson has argued since his federal lawsuit was filed that his dispute is with poultry companies in Arkansas, not the state of Arkansas.

Beebe disagrees, saying it’s an issue for the state because it involves farmers and landowners who raise chickens and turkeys for the poultry companies. He repeated that point Tuesday, saying farmers “have no voice in this litigious attack on their farms.”

Some of Beebe’s written arguments were identical to what he said to the Supreme Court. Among them is that the two-state compact commission, which was created by Congress in 1973, is the proper venue for water-quality disputes between the states.

Beebe also contended that Oklahoma is trying to “impose its own laws and regulations on economic activity and citizens located within Arkansas’ borders.”