Scientist testifies about poultry industry boom

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Poultry production in the Illinois River watershed multiplied again and again over the past half-century, a scientist testified Thursday in Oklahoma's pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry.

Companies went from producing about 12 million birds in 1950 to about 152 million in 2002, said J. Berton Fisher, one of Oklahoma's expert witnesses in its case accusing 11 poultry producers, including Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc., of polluting the 1 million-acre watershed with bird waste.

Fisher also testified about how the watershed's hills, thin soils and rocky, porous terrain allowed contaminants to seep into streams and groundwater.

For decades, farmers have used chicken litter — the birds' droppings, feathers and bedding — as a cheap fertilizer to grow other crops. The state argues that runoff from those fields contains bacteria that threatens the health of the thousands of people who raft and fish in the watershed each year.

Other states thinking about challenging the way the industry does business are closely watching the case.

In order to estimate the number of chicken houses in the region, Fisher said, Oklahoma hired a dozen off-duty Tulsa police officers to investigate almost 4,000 structures between 2005 and 2007 to determine if they were still being used. Fisher also relied on tax rolls and land records to pinpoint the structures.

The officers worked off a high-resolution aerial photograph of the watershed taken in 2005.

"They investigated every structure from the aerial map," Fisher testified. "There are thousands of photographs and thousands of sheets (of paper)."

Earlier Thursday, attorneys for the poultry companies accused Oklahoma of trying to introduce new research done by Fisher.

Tyson attorney Robert George said Fisher had a May 2008 deadline to submit a report of his findings, but went back months later to re-evaluate some sampling and come up with a "new analysis."

George told U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell that his legal team learned about the new findings only 72 hours earlier.

But Oklahoma attorney David Page assured Frizzell there would be no new analysis presented, and Fisher was allowed to testify. Testimony is scheduled to continue Tuesday.

The other defendants named in the lawsuit are Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cargill Turkey Production LLC, George's Inc., George's Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.