Judge Orders 30-Year Pollution Abatement Plan for Poultry Operations in NWA, Including Tyson

An order in a decades-long lawsuit between Oklahoma and several major poultry companies operating in Arkansas — including Springdale-based Tyson Foods — was handed down by a federal judge in Tulsa Friday. The companies are accused of polluting the Illinois River with waste from poultry litter spread on land in the river’s watershed in Northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell — who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2007 —ordered companies including Tyson, Cal-Maine, Cargill, George’s, Simmons Foods, Cobb- Vantress, and others to pay around $2.8 million in fines for breaking Oklahoma environmental law. Those penalties are far lower than the roughly $100 million sought by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

But the poultry companies, and the farmers who grow chickens for them, face decades of monitoring by a special master who will be appointed by the court. The judge’s decision orders the companies to remediate the Illinois River watershed over three phases that will also require the companies to fund cleanup over 30 years. The order requires the companies to deposit an initial $10 million in a cleanup fund that must be replenished by the companies every time it falls below $5 million for the duration of the clean up process. 

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Arkansas Times