By The Morning News

Testing soil, poultry litter and water on farmers' fields is relevant and not an undue burden on farmers, said Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in a response to farmers claims.

Federal Magistrate Judge Sam A. Joyner has set a May 17 date for the hearing to consider the state's subpoenas to conduct the sampling and the farmers and poultry companies objections.

The subpoenas were issued to gather evidence in a case Edmondson filed against 14 poultry companies in June claiming they are polluting the Illinois River and should pay to clean it up.

Edmondson asked the court to grant the subpoenas to allow him to speed up the discovery process for soil testing. Edmondson said then that the pollution from the chicken litter running off into streams created an imminent public health threat and that he wanted to be able to test the farms in the spring when farmers often apply litter to their fields.

Attorneys for the farmers in the Illinois River Watershed filed a motion last week to do away with the subpoenas.

Michael Graves, one of the attorneys representing the farmers, said the subpoenas were "so vague and unspecific as to be basically meaningless."

Edmondson responded to those claims in a court filing stating the state had adequately fulfilled the rules regarding subpoenas and the request would not put an undue burden on farmers or the poultry companies.