Tighter rules on poultry litter sought in northeast Oklahoma
Posted on Sunday, September 9, 2007
TULSA — The city and its utility authority want a federal court to revise rules and further limit how much poultry waste can be spread on land in two watersheds in northeastern Oklahoma.
The nutrient application limits were imposed by a judge as a temporary measure in a settlement agreement that ended a lawsuit involving six poultry companies, the city of Tulsa and the Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority.
According to court papers filed in federal court Friday by the city and the utility authority, the revisions are needed because a permanent standard was never agreed upon and waters feeding into the watershed continue to be impaired by excessive amounts of phosphorus.
An attorney for Decaturbased Peterson Farms Inc., one of the six poultry companies named in the lawsuit, said the poultry companies were surprised by the filing.
“It is the poultry companies’ expectation that the court will close this matter and relinquish jurisdiction in February 2008 as she has previously ordered,” Scott McDaniel said.
At issue is an interim phosphorus index imposed by U. S. District Judge Claire Eagan in February 2004. The phosphorus index, or PI, is an assessment tool used to manage the land application of poultry litter.
“We are pleased that the settlement has resulted in reduced litter application, but we cannot stand by in the mistaken belief the water will improve under the current PI when it is known that high phosphorous fields can require 15 or 20 years of continuous crop harvesting, without additional phosphorous during that time, to reduce high soil test phosphorous in the fields,” said utility authority member Jim Cameron.
In addition to requesting a more restrictive phosphorus index, the city and the utility authority have requested a judge continue to oversee the lawsuit for at least four years.
Judicial oversight of the case is to end in February.
Cameron said the lakes that feed the city’s water supply are not improving and have degraded in quality in the past few years.
The interim rules imposed by the court allow excessive amounts of phosphorus to build up in the soils, he said.
The motion proposes revisions to the index to address total phosphorus rather than only soluble phosphorus. It also seeks to significantly lower the court’s allowed maximum limit of phosphorus concentration in the soil to a level that is more in line with what crops and grasses actually need.
The city and utility authority filed the lawsuit in December 2001, claiming that Peterson Farms, Cargill Inc., Tyson Foods Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Simmons Foods Inc. and Georges Inc. are responsible for 170 million pounds of phosphorus- and nitrogen-rich chicken waste that goes into the city watershed each year through creeks and streams that flow into Lake Eucha, which feeds Lake Spavinaw.
Spavinaw is one of two drinking water sources for Tulsa. The other is Lake Oologah.
The lawsuit also accused the city of Decatur of contributing to the phosphorus level in the lakes through its treatment of waste water from a Peterson Farms processing plant.
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