BY ROBERT J. SMITH

Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006

LINCOLN — Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe spent Tuesday afternoon telling 50 Northwest Arkansas farmers they could count on him in the battle with Oklahoma over poultry litter.

The Democratic candidate for governor delivered a similar message Tuesday night to about 500 farmers at the Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center in Fayetteville, including a group of about 10 Oklahoma farmers Beebe singled out for recognition.

In the dusty, breezy hay barn of Lincoln poultry farmer Darren Proctor, Beebe said he’s got a “pretty steep mountain to climb” if he’s to convince the U. S. Supreme Court to get involved in Arkansas’ dispute with Oklahoma over the potential damage poultry litter is doing to Oklahoma’s scenic rivers.

“We thought it was worth the fight,” Beebe told the farmers at the Proctor farm, “but I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

In November, Beebe asked the high court to get involved in a lawsuit involving Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and eight poultry companies with operations in Arkansas. Beebe argued in court papers that it’s a two-state dispute, saying its impact on farmers makes it worthy of the Supreme Court’s involvement.

He wants the Supreme Court to rule that Oklahoma must take the dispute to the Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission, a board created by Congress in the 1970 s to consider water quality and quantity issues between the states.

Edmondson, who sued the eight companies in June for their negative environmental impact on the Illinois River watershed, contends it’s not a dispute between states and that Beebe is sticking up for corporate polluters.

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

Litter is wood shavings or rice hulls used to soak up bird manure in poultry houses. The litter, which contains phosphorus, is used as a fertilizer on fields to fuel hay growth. The phosphorus, however, can degrade water quality if it reaches streams.

In 2002, Oklahoma determined that the state’s six scenic rivers, including the Illinois River, need to have phosphorus levels not to exceed 0. 037 milligrams per litter. Four of the six streams flow from Arkansas into Oklahoma, and the water must meet the Oklahoma standard at the state line.

“Big poultry’s got their own lawyers,” Beebe told the farmers. “They don’t need me, but I’m all you got.”

The farmers at the Lincoln farm welcomed the state’s help.

Lonnie Gragg, who runs a Simmons poultry farm north of Lincoln, said harm to the poultry companies brings harm to farmers.

“It’s going to cost the farmers chicken check money,” Gragg told Beebe.

Washington County Judge Jerry Hunton, who owns 12 poultry houses near Prairie Grove, said a huge financial payment by the poultry industry if they were to lose in a lawsuit means “Northwest Arkansas’ boom economy becomes a bust economy.”

“It means bankruptcies for farmers,” Hunton said.

Cattle farmers, feed mill owners and ranchers also were at the Lincoln farm.

“I know what the farmers are going through,” said Don Ledford, who now owns a 200-acre cattle farm north of Lincoln purchased by his father in 1959. “It’ll break these people around here if they can’t use the litter. It could devastate this area.”