Twenty years ago, Oklahoma’s then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued 13 poultry companies in federal court for improper poultry litter disposal and environmental damage to the state’s water by poultry businesses mostly in Arkansas, and specifically over the Illinois River watershed.
Once referred to as the “Busload of Lawyers” case for all the attorneys required to represent all he parties, the case has remained alive in the Northern District of Oklahoma, but the end may now be in sight.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has proposed a final judgment to the federal court that would have poultry companies remaining in the case pay more than $100 million for poultry litter pollution in the Illinois River Watershed (IRW)…