CLIFTON ADCOCK, THE FRONTIER, SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

After a years-long legal battle with some of the world’s largest poultry producers over pollutants in one of Oklahoma’s most important waterways, the state attorney general still thinks he can strike a deal with the powerful industry.

Oklahoma is still waiting on a ruling in a two-decade-old lawsuit that could have far-reaching consequences for the Illinois River and the surrounding region. But the parties could still reach a settlement outside of court.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he wants a clear plan to restrict poultry producers from spreading bird waste on farmland in the Illinois River watershed.

Pollution from the phosphorus in chicken litter spread on fields in the watershed remains in the soil from years earlier.

“We can’t fix it today, but we can fix it over a period of years,” Drummond said.

Drummond has been at odds with the poultry industry over who is to blame for pollution in the region. Drummond admits wastewater treatment plants that discharge into the river and population increase in northwest Arkansas over the past 20 years have contributed to pollution, but not as much as poultry companies contend.

“Poultry is still complicit,” Drummond said. The Illinois River runs about 100 miles along the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas. About half a million people live in the surrounding watershed that spans parts of the two states. In Oklahoma, the river flows into Lake Tenkiller, which is a destination for boating and fishing as well as a source of public drinking water. Phosphorus pollution that comes from sources including waste from poultry farms that dot the region can kill fish and cause algae blooms, poor water clarity, and foulsmelling and tasting drinking water.

Poultry farmers and cattle ranchers have used bird litter to fertilize their pastures, hay meadows and crops since the poul- ltry industry boom in eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas began in the 1940s.

Previous talks between state and poultry companies were unsuccessful.

Drummond told The Frontier that it seemed to him the poultry companies stood to gain financially by dragging out the case.

“My observation is that poultry would rather litigate and appeal and delay,” Drummond said. “It’s economically beneficial. I wish they would change that.”

Under state Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma sued poultry companies including Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods and Cargill in 2005 over pollution to the Illinois River watershed.

Edmondson told The Frontier that he and his team had been in negotiations with all of the parties involved for years. He was able to work out deals with the state and cities, but not with the poultry companies,

Edmondson said he doubted the poultry companies would willingly reach an agreement with the state now, and would likely try to get the case overturned on appeal.

“Over 20 years ago, and it’s still true today, the industry is not going to do anything in regard to protecting water unless they are paid to or made to,” Edmondson said, “and we can’t pay them, so we’ve asked the court to make them.”

Federal Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled in 2023 that the evidence from the trial showed poultry companies were liable for the damage caused by spreading poultry waste on fields and allowing it to wash into the rivers and streams for decades. The parties are waiting on a federal court ruling on whether evidence from a trial 15 years ago still holds true.

Other state leaders have not been supportive of Drummond’s continued pursuit of the poultry industry.

In a statement, Gov. Kevin Stitt said the lawsuit jeopardizes the state’s close relationship with corporate interests, and called for the immediate dismissal of the case, although the judge already ruled in the state’s favor.

“This 20-year-old lawsuit is simply an attempt by radical environmental extremists and greedy out-of-state trial lawyers to attack industries trying to follow the law,” Stitt said.

Stitt later said in response to questions at a press briefing that he would not support any sort of deal to limit the spread of poultry litter on farmland in the region. Such a requirement should go through the Legislature or the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, he said.

“I wouldn’t be supportive of that at all,” Stitt said. “And I’ll say this to everybody out there, if we think that the Illinois River needs addressing and we think the application of fertilizer is not correct, then we need to fix that. And you fix that going forward, right?”

Stitt, who is in his last term, accused fellow Republican Drummond, who is running for governor in 2026, of extorting the poultry companies and trying to curry political favor with attorneys.

“There’s no possible way I would be for playing Monday morning quarterback, going to a business and staying ‘you’ve got deep pockets, you can afford it, even though you followed all the rules and had all the permits and you did everything we told you to do, now we don’t like it and want you to give us a billion dollars,’” Stitt said. “That’s basically what these trial attorneys