Fowl runoff spurs fierce poultry fight
Amid suits over water pollution from manure, the chicken industry asks Congress for relief
By Andrew Martin
Tribune national correspondent
Published June 13, 2006
GROVE, Okla. -- For Bill Berry, there's nothing sweet about the waters of Honey Creek.
A 65-year-old cattle rancher, Berry said manure from chicken farms and a chicken processing plant upstream have fouled the stream that runs past his ranch.
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The water is so wretched, Berry said, that he no longer drinks from his well and has fenced off the stream so his cattle and grandchildren can't go near it.
"When I was a kid growing up we'd throw dimes out in the stream and dive down and get them," Berry said. "You can't do that today. . . . When the dogs won't drink out of the creek, you know there's something wrong."
Berry is part of a bitter and expensive fight that has festered for a decade over poultry waste in this hilly region of eastern Oklahoma and has now migrated to Washington, where the livestock industry has considerable clout. Berry and others argue that the region's large poultry industry, which is primarily in northwest Arkansas, has generated so much chicken waste that it has seeped into waterways that flow into Oklahoma.
The poultry industry is fighting back. The industry is lobbying Congress--with the help of a firm headed by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.)--to exempt manure from being labeled a "hazardous substance" under the federal Superfund law. And it has created a lobbying group, Farmers for Clean Air and Water, to make its side of the story known.
Tulsa escalates legal fight
The fight escalated in 2001 when Tulsa sued the poultry industry after algae blooms polluted the city's water supply, a case that was settled after poultry companies in the watershed agreed to regulate their application of manure as fertilizer. The state of Oklahoma followed up with a suit last year, suing poultry companies for polluting the scenic Illinois River (this one starts in Arkansas) water basin, a popular tourist destination.
"We began with the Illinois River watershed because that's where our best data is," said Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Drew Edmondson. "If this goes to trial and we get a result, we'll start next on the next watershed."
The suits have so rattled the livestock industry that its leaders have taken their case to Capitol Hill. They are lobbying to change the Superfund law that has been cited in both Oklahoma lawsuits--and a third filed by the city of Waco, Texas, in 2004 against upstream dairies--in an attempt to hold the livestock companies liable.
"From our perspective, if a court decides animal manure is hazardous waste, then livestock producers may as well put diapers on their cows, pigs and chickens," said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Arkansas-based Tyson Foods.
The livestock industry also argues that if successful, Edmondson's suit could have apocalyptic repercussions, from harming the organic industry to forcing the livestock industry overseas. The crux of the industry's fears is the Superfund law, which officials argue could be used to hold liable anyone involved with animal manure, from farmers to truck drivers to livestock companies.
"We don't believe Congress ever intended to regulate manure under Superfund," said Tamara Thies, director of environmental issues for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, an industry group that belongs to Farmers for Clean Air and Water. "There's manure on every field in the country. If it's determined to be a hazardous substance, the cleanup would be enormous."
Manure is a divisive issue in rural America as small livestock farms consolidate into industrial-size, often indoor facilities to become more efficient. With hundreds of animals under one roof, these farms--known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs--generate an estimated 200 million tons of manure yearly. Most of that waste is spread on nearby fields as fertilizer.
Farmers consider manure a valuable byproduct because it spares them the expense of commercial fertilizer, but some neighbors have filed lawsuits objecting to the odors, flies and potential health effects of living downwind.
However, there are few studies that assess the overall impact of CAFOs on the environment.
While the most dramatic episodes have resulted from manure lagoons spilling into rivers and killing thousands of fish, a bigger problem may be the over-application of manure on cropland for fertilizer because what isn't absorbed by the soil and plants washes into nearby streams, rivers and lakes.
Chicken litter--manure mixed with bedding--can contain everything from E. coli to antibiotics, though the bigger problem has been phosphorous, which is added to chicken feed to strengthen the animals' bones to support rapid growth. When it washes into streams and lakes, phosphorous accelerates algae growth, which sucks oxygen from the water, slimes underwater rocks and makes the water smell and taste bad.
In a survey of states, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that agriculture, which includes animal waste and such things as commercial fertilizer and pesticides, was the principal source of pollution in rivers and that 29 states specifically identified CAFOs as a source of the pollution.
Under current law, the largest of these operations are required to obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act that includes a detailed plan accounting for the manure. But a GAO study in 2003 found that only 40 percent of these large farms that were supposed to obtain discharge permits had actually done so....
Amid suits over water pollution from manure, the chicken industry asks Congress for relief
By Andrew Martin
Tribune national correspondent
Published June 13, 2006
GROVE, Okla. -- For Bill Berry, there's nothing sweet about the waters of Honey Creek.
A 65-year-old cattle rancher, Berry said manure from chicken farms and a chicken processing plant upstream have fouled the stream that runs past his ranch.
E-mail this story
Printable format
Search archives
RSS
The water is so wretched, Berry said, that he no longer drinks from his well and has fenced off the stream so his cattle and grandchildren can't go near it.
"When I was a kid growing up we'd throw dimes out in the stream and dive down and get them," Berry said. "You can't do that today. . . . When the dogs won't drink out of the creek, you know there's something wrong."
Berry is part of a bitter and expensive fight that has festered for a decade over poultry waste in this hilly region of eastern Oklahoma and has now migrated to Washington, where the livestock industry has considerable clout. Berry and others argue that the region's large poultry industry, which is primarily in northwest Arkansas, has generated so much chicken waste that it has seeped into waterways that flow into Oklahoma.
The poultry industry is fighting back. The industry is lobbying Congress--with the help of a firm headed by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.)--to exempt manure from being labeled a "hazardous substance" under the federal Superfund law. And it has created a lobbying group, Farmers for Clean Air and Water, to make its side of the story known.
Tulsa escalates legal fight
The fight escalated in 2001 when Tulsa sued the poultry industry after algae blooms polluted the city's water supply, a case that was settled after poultry companies in the watershed agreed to regulate their application of manure as fertilizer. The state of Oklahoma followed up with a suit last year, suing poultry companies for polluting the scenic Illinois River (this one starts in Arkansas) water basin, a popular tourist destination.
"We began with the Illinois River watershed because that's where our best data is," said Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Drew Edmondson. "If this goes to trial and we get a result, we'll start next on the next watershed."
The suits have so rattled the livestock industry that its leaders have taken their case to Capitol Hill. They are lobbying to change the Superfund law that has been cited in both Oklahoma lawsuits--and a third filed by the city of Waco, Texas, in 2004 against upstream dairies--in an attempt to hold the livestock companies liable.
"From our perspective, if a court decides animal manure is hazardous waste, then livestock producers may as well put diapers on their cows, pigs and chickens," said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Arkansas-based Tyson Foods.
The livestock industry also argues that if successful, Edmondson's suit could have apocalyptic repercussions, from harming the organic industry to forcing the livestock industry overseas. The crux of the industry's fears is the Superfund law, which officials argue could be used to hold liable anyone involved with animal manure, from farmers to truck drivers to livestock companies.
"We don't believe Congress ever intended to regulate manure under Superfund," said Tamara Thies, director of environmental issues for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, an industry group that belongs to Farmers for Clean Air and Water. "There's manure on every field in the country. If it's determined to be a hazardous substance, the cleanup would be enormous."
Manure is a divisive issue in rural America as small livestock farms consolidate into industrial-size, often indoor facilities to become more efficient. With hundreds of animals under one roof, these farms--known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs--generate an estimated 200 million tons of manure yearly. Most of that waste is spread on nearby fields as fertilizer.
Farmers consider manure a valuable byproduct because it spares them the expense of commercial fertilizer, but some neighbors have filed lawsuits objecting to the odors, flies and potential health effects of living downwind.
However, there are few studies that assess the overall impact of CAFOs on the environment.
While the most dramatic episodes have resulted from manure lagoons spilling into rivers and killing thousands of fish, a bigger problem may be the over-application of manure on cropland for fertilizer because what isn't absorbed by the soil and plants washes into nearby streams, rivers and lakes.
Chicken litter--manure mixed with bedding--can contain everything from E. coli to antibiotics, though the bigger problem has been phosphorous, which is added to chicken feed to strengthen the animals' bones to support rapid growth. When it washes into streams and lakes, phosphorous accelerates algae growth, which sucks oxygen from the water, slimes underwater rocks and makes the water smell and taste bad.
In a survey of states, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that agriculture, which includes animal waste and such things as commercial fertilizer and pesticides, was the principal source of pollution in rivers and that 29 states specifically identified CAFOs as a source of the pollution.
Under current law, the largest of these operations are required to obtain a permit under the Clean Water Act that includes a detailed plan accounting for the manure. But a GAO study in 2003 found that only 40 percent of these large farms that were supposed to obtain discharge permits had actually done so....