Oklahoma City, Okla.-Hundreds of farmers in northeast Oklahoma growing hay and grass for cattle feed are still cheering a recent federal court judge’s refusal to ban use of chicken litter for fertilizer. “They just wouldn’t have been able to fertilize at all because of higher costs,” Oklahoma Farm Bureau official Marla Peek told Green Markets. Jackie Cunningham, spokeswoman for the Poultry Community Council, added, “The injunction would have completely stopped the land application of poultry litter in the entire one million acre Illinois River watershed. The outcome recognizes what we have been saying that the science simply does not support claims against the hard working farmers.” Farmers in northwest Arkansas also are affected by this latest development in a suit by Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Drew Edmonson against 13 poultry companies, claiming contamination of the watershed. Edmondson is seeking restoration of the watershed and millions of dollars in court costs. The ruling Sept. 29 by Judge Gregory Frizzell of the U.S. Northern District Court of Oklahoma, however, served as a setback, asserting that “at this juncture in the action, the state has failed to meet the applicable standard of showing that the bacteria levels in the IRW can be traced to the application of poultry litter.” He maintained that the evidence indicated that “fecal bacteria come from a number of sources, including cattle manure and human waste from growing numbers of human septic systems.” Peek, OKFB’s director of regulatory affairs, said this maintains the status quo for farmers, who are already tightly regulated under state law, which prescribes both rate of application and amount of nutrient. Had the injunction been granted, she suggested, it might have paved the way for further restrictions on the use of manure and other organic fertilizer products.
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