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Kelly Kurt
Regulations and voluntary efforts haven't made a significant difference in
halting the pollution of the city's water supply, Savage said.
"In my personal opinion," she said, "litigation is at this juncture the only
solution that will end up making a difference."
No decision has been made by the city whether to take legal action. But the
Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority voted Wednesday to hire the Oklahoma
City law firm McKinney & Stringer to research and examine legal options.
The head of the Poultry Federation, representing the industry in Oklahoma,
Arkansas and Missouri, said he was disappointed by Tulsa's move.
The industry has been working cooperatively to address the phosphorous
concerns, said Morril Harriman, executive vice president of the Little Rock,
Ark.-based federation.
"We are convinced that what we have been doing is reducing the amount of
phosphorous going into the watershed from our industry, and will, over time,
mitigate whatever impact poultry is having on Eucha-Spavinaw," he said.
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Savage said she came to her own opinion about litigation "very slowly and
regretfully," but it will be up to the lawyers to decide whether legal action
is a realistic course to take.
The city's water treatment costs have tripled in recent years in its fight to
keep the water from tasting and smelling bad.
An Oklahoma State University study released last spring found that 74 percent
of the phosphorous flowing into Lake Eucha comes from non-point sources,
which can include chicken waste applied to land as fertilizer. Another 24
percent comes from the Decatur, Ark., wastewater plant, which is fed by a
chicken processing plant.
The excess phosphorous is fueling algae growth, the source of the foul taste
and odor.
Savage said an opinion issued by Attorney General Drew Edmondson provides a
"window of potential opportunity," pointing to poultry companies, not the
individual poultry producers.
In the past, poultry companies have said contract growers, not them, are
responsible for chicken waste applied to their land.
Edmondson found that if a corporation hires an independent contractor but
controls every aspect of how the contractor does the job, the contractor is
no longer independent, shifting liability to the corporation.
Savage said she could not say whether point-source pollution also would be a
target of any potential litigation.
Oklahoma enacted legislation in 1998 aimed at non-point source pollution.
Harriman said the poultry industry began requiring farms on both sides of the
state line to have litter management plans and use the best management in
spreading poultry waste.
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