Oklahoma

Oklahoma bill would shield poultry companies from lawsuits over chicken litter pollution

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2024

Oklahoma bill would shield poultry companies from lawsuits over chicken litter pollution

Ben Felder
| Investigate Midwest

As Oklahoma wraps up a nearly 20-year lawsuit against several large poultry companies over chicken litter pollution in its eastern waterways, state lawmakers have advanced a bill to remove liability from companies in the future, giving them what environmentalists have called a “license to pollute.”

House Bill 4118, authored by State Rep. David Hardin, a Republican from Stilwell, would “insulate the poultry grower, integrator, and waste applicator from any private right of action” as long as they have an approved Nutrient Management Plan from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Poultry farm operators must submit a Nutrient Management Plan to the state demonstrating how they will safely remove and reuse chicken litter, which is often sold to area farms as fertilizer.

But Hardin’s bill says that even if a poultry operator violated its Nutrient Management Plan, it would still avoid liability.

“I can’t think of another industry that has this type of immunity,” said Matt Wright, chairman of the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma, a nonprofit that opposes the bill it calls a “license to pollute.” “If an oil and gas company had a spill but said they at least had a plan that tried to avoid the spill, they can still be held liable.”

The bill received unanimous approval by the Oklahoma House Committee on Agriculture last week and was advanced by the full House on Monday.

In 2005, then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued several large poultry companies, including Tyson Foods, Cargill, Cal-Maine Foods and Simmons Foods, for causing increased levels of phosphorus, E. coli and nitrogen in the Illinois River Watershed.

A federal judge ruled in favor of the state last year, but the case is still unresolved after a court-ordered mediation between the state and the companies broke down.

Since the lawsuit was filed, Oklahoma’s poultry industry has continued to grow, topping 200 million birds a year, according to licensing records from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Hardin, the bill’s author, said he wanted to protect poultry farmers from similar lawsuits in the future.

“We have stringent rules through the Department of Agriculture to protect our environment, and Nutrient Management Plans are really precise on the amount of litter that you can spread or if you can spread it all,” Hardin told Investigate Midwest during an interview in his Capitol office.

“This bill doesn’t mean that somebody can’t come in and bring some sort of action, but you bring it against the state. We set the rules and (the companies follow) the rules that we set and then they get stuck in lawsuits over rules we set. All I’m saying is if you’re going to sue, sue the state.”

Hardin’s bill originally had language making the protection from litigation retroactive, but it was removed before its hearing in the full House.

Even if the language had remained, it likely would not have impacted current lawsuits as the state’s Constitution bars the state Legislature from imposing new laws that end ongoing lawsuits.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who has continued the federal lawsuit against Tyson and other poultry producers, asked the judge last year to impose new standards on the poultry companies. Drummond’s office declined to comment on Hardin’s bill and its potential impact on the case.

State Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, a Democrat from Oklahoma City, voted in favor of the bill during its committee hearing. But he later told Investigate Midwest he wouldn’t support the bill moving forward after learning more details.

“The more I think about (this bill), the more I think we have a responsibility to take care of our constituents, not these large corporations,” Alonso-Sandoval said. “Besides, we’ve had a history of environmental problems, so why risk going back to where we were before?”

Alonso-Sandoval voted against the bill during its hearing before the full House, joining the rest of the Democratic caucus in opposition.

Democratic lawmakers spent nearly 45 minutes questioning Hardin on his bill during Monday’s hearing, including State Rep. Mickey Dollens who said he believed the bill was an act of “deregulating” an industry that has caused pollution problems in the state for years.

“It is reprehensible and quite disgusting that we are debating a bill that prioritizes big ag and corporate lobbyists over our citizens and their drinking water,” said Dollens, who is a Demcorat from Oklahoma City.

However, House Bill 4118 was approved by the House’s Republican majority with a vote of 68 to 28. The bill now moves to the State Senate for consideration.

Poultry litter waste in eastern Oklahoma

The growing poultry industry in eastern Oklahoma is largely made up of industrial farms that raise several hundred thousand birds at a time. A building with 100,000 chickens can produce 750 tons of litter a year.

Most of that litter is sold to area farmers as fertilizer.

“Animal manure and poultry litter contain all 16 essential plant nutrients as well as organic matter. … thus, manure can be a valuable asset to a poultry operation if its nutrients and organic matter are recycled through land application properly,” according to Oklahoma State University’s current guide on Nutrient Management Plans. However, “(p)oultry litter may cause surface and groundwater pollution if mismanaged or over-applied.”

The state’s 2005 lawsuit claimed chicken litter in eastern Oklahoma was being over-applied and ending up in streams and rivers. Rising phosphorus had decreased oxygen in the water, which was killing fish and increasing filtration costs for the more than one dozen towns that relied on the Illinois River Watershed for drinking water.

Over the last several years, more chicken litter has been shipped out of state, and some measures have been taken to protect waterways, such as vegetative buffer strips between a crop field and a nearby stream.

Lawmakers in support of the bill argued that declining phosphorus rates are proof that Nutrient Management Plans are working.

“We are making extreme progress every day cleaning up our waterways,” State Rep. Jim Grego, R-Wilburton, said in support of the bill before Monday’s vote. “This bill here, all it does is protect farmers.”

Grego and other lawmakers referenced a 2019 report from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission that said the state was a leader in the number of waterways removed from the federal list of impaired waterbodies.

But while phosphorus rates have decreased, some remain well above state standards.

Last year, a water quality report found maximum phosphorus rates higher than the state standard of 0.037 milligrams per liter in 13 eastern Oklahoma waterways. In the Illinois River, near the town of Watts, the maximum phosphorus rate recorded was 1.153 milligrams per liter, and as high as 0.438 milligrams per liter near Tahlequah.

Wright, president of the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma, said the poultry industry is an important economic sector for the state but he worried further pollution could hurt other industries, including tourism.

“In the eastern part of the state, you have the Illinois River and the Mountain Fork (River), both of which rely heavily on tourism,” Wright said. “If there is a huge fish kill or people start getting sick, it will have a huge impact on (the tourism) industry.”

Violators of Nutrient Management Plans would still be protected

Hardin’s claim that a Nutrient Management Plan should be enough to protect poultry companies from legal action is the same argument Tyson Foods made last year when the company sought a motion to dismiss the state’s lawsuit.

“These plans, which set forth the time, location, and amount of poultry litter that may be applied to each parcel of land, have now ensured that, for well over a decade, the state has consented to and even controlled all poultry-litter applications,” Tyson attorneys wrote in the motion to dismiss.

Marvin Childers, president of the Poultry Federation, a lobbying group many Oklahoma poultry companies direct the media to for comment, said his organization is tracking HB 4118, but didn’t offer an opinion on the measure.

“It has a long way to go in the legislative process,” Childers said in an emailed statement to Investigate Midwest.

While poultry companies, like Tyson, say they should be protected from litigation if they are following state-approved plans, Hardin’s bill includes language that could also protect both poultry companies and the farmers they contract with if they stray from those plans.

The bill states, “Land application of poultry litter in compliance with a current Nutrient Management Plan shall not be the basis for criminal or civil liability in Oklahoma, … nor shall an administrative violation be the basis for a criminal or civil action.”

Asked what constitutes an “administrative violation,” Lee Benson, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, said it is any violation the agency deals with.

Asked about that language, Hardin said if a poultry farmer violated state rules the company would likely terminate its contract.

During Monday’s House debate, Hardin claimed the bill would not protect violators.

“If you are not in compliance (with the Nutrient Management Plan), this bill does not cover you,” Hardin said.

Recent state laws help the poultry industry

Despite the state’s lawsuit against poultry companies and water pollution rates above state standards, the Oklahoma Legislature and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture continuously have made it easier for poultry operators to open new farms and avoid pushback from neighbors.

Ten years ago, the state made it easier for industrial poultry farms to open closer to homes and water sources by offering an alternative registration system.

Last year, the Legislature passed a new law that dismisses protests against a poultry farm’s application for a water use permit, if the protest is “based solely on the industry or entity applying to use the water.”

Some Oklahomans have protested new water use permits and filed lawsuits against the state, arguing not enough research was done before giving new farms access to groundwater.

This year, an earlier version of Hardin’s bill sought to deregulate the poultry industry even further as it removed bans on poultry litter creating “an environmental or a public health hazard.” That draft also removed the state ban on the “discharge of poultry waste to waters of the state.”

Hardin removed that language before last week’s committee hearing, focusing specifically on the litigation aspect.

“I thought that might be a little bit too far, so I said let’s pull it back,” Hardin said about the changes he made to the bill.

Hardin has also faced criticism about his wife’s involvement in the poultry industry. She formerly consulted with Simmons Foods to write Nutrient Management Plans for its chicken farmers, but Hardin said she stopped working for the company once he began running poultry-related bills a few years ago. Hardin’s 2022 financial disclosure reported his wife’s work with Simmons Foods, but his 2024 disclosure no longer showed her work with the poultry company. Simmons Foods did not respond to a request for comment on Hardin’s wife.

“I’m not going to be Terry O’Donnell,” Hardin told two Democratic lawmakers after last week’s committee meeting on his bill.

O’Donnell, a former state representative, was indicted by an Oklahoma County grand jury in 2021 after he introduced a bill that removed the ban on spouses of lawmakers from serving as agents of a vehicle registration center, or tag agency. Months after the bill passed, O’Donnell’s wife took over a tag agency in Catoosa. The case was later dropped.

Hardin said his wife’s former work gave him unique insight into what’s involved with the disposal of chicken litter.

“I’ve seen what all you have to go through to create these Nutrient Management Plans and you have to go through all this training,” said Hardin, who added he believes the state’s requirements for poultry farmers are sufficient. “But if a poultry farmer has actually followed the Nutrient Management Plan then you’ll need to bring that lawsuit to the Department of Agriculture.”

Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit us online at www.investigatemidwest.org

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Oklahoma

Oklahoma County jail searches for new solution to jail transportation

Published

6 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma County jail searches for new solution to jail transportation

OKLAHOMA CITY –

Tensions over changes to transportation between the Oklahoma County Detention Center and courthouse reached a peak during a special meeting of the jail’s governing trust on Friday.

Early in April, Sheriff Tommie Johnson III announced he would no longer task any of his own deputies with driving inmates and detainees the half-mile route from the jail to their court hearings, effective May 11. However, from May 11 through June 30, Johnson’s plan included keeping some deputies on the assignment to train and work alongside the jail’s own detention officers.

Along the way, other members of the jail trust have expressed some concerns about the trust’s ability to fully assume the transportation duties.

Oklahoma County’s district attorney, chief public defender, and presiding judge all made rare appearances at the trust meeting on Friday to share some of their own thoughts.

“I want you to consider this decision on whether or not the detention center should take over transport of detainees from the jail to the courthouse, because there is no plan,” District Attorney Vicki Behenna told the trust. “There are no employees at the detention center right now that can fulfill this obligation.”

Behenna also cited concerns that the already understaffed jail would face a worsening staffing situation if it has to pull some of its existing detention officers to provide transportation.

“In my opinion, and the opinion of other lawyers in my office, the indenture requires the Sheriff’s department to do transport,” she added, referencing the indenture which created and assigned control of jail operations to the trust in 2020.

Sheriff Tommie Johnson III cited his own budget concerns as a reason to discontinue the transportation service. His office believes it needs roughly 17 to 19 more deputies inside the courthouse for court security, and it could begin by reassigning

Presiding District Court Judge Sheila Stinson shared her own remarks with the trust, stating that this week alone, three judges had faced death threats. Johnson said his ambition is to have a deputy in every courtroom.

Ultimately, Behenna suggested the trust should not accept the end of the contract and that the sheriff has a duty to continue providing the service, regardless of if the sheriff is paid for the service.

In response, Sheriff Johnson accused the district attorney of being misleading.

“Considering the gross amount of misrepresentation in this section, and relative ease to obtain the correct information, I must assume — I must assume — that this was intentionally misstated to persuade this body to make an ill-informed decision to further the DA’s agenda,” he said.

The district attorney and sheriff eventually got into a back-and-forth.

“Sheriff Johnson, I don’t understand why you have such a visceral reaction to me,” Behenna stated. “If the DA has an agenda, my agenda is public safety.”

Tensions settled some later in the meeting, with trust members still pressed to find an alternative solution.

Trustee Derrick Scobey proposed a solution for the trust and sheriff to work together to find a private partner to operate the transportation service, rather than tasking their own in-house staff to perform the duties.

Sheriff Johnson eventually agreed that his office could help identify a private partner, but that the timeline for gradually taking his deputies out of the task would remain.

Jail administrator Tim Kimrey acknowledged that three of his detention officers would be available starting Monday to work alongside three of Johnson’s deputies to train and learn about the transportation duties while both parties work to find a private partner.

Kimrey said his office had already begun some research on private jail transportation partners, including The GEO Group, TransCor, and LaSalle Corrections.

The trust postponed officially accepting the end of the sheriff’s contract until its next meeting.

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Oklahoma

Chad Weiberg Says Oklahoma State Doesn’t Intend on Using RedBird Credit Line from Big 12 Deal

Published

19 hours ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Chad Weiberg Says Oklahoma State Doesn’t Intend on Using RedBird Credit Line from Big 12 Deal

For the time being, Oklahoma State will not opt in to the credit line through the Big 12’s recent deal with RedBird.

In case you missed it last week, the Big 12 approved a five-year agreement with RedBird Capital Partners, becoming the first conference to have a league-wide, private capital deal.

The deal provides the Big 12 with a $12.5 million capital infusion while the league’s institutions have the opportunity to opt into a $30 million credit line that would have to be paid back with a “double-digit” interest rate, according to ESPN.

It doesn’t sound like many (if any) schools will take RedBird up on that deal, and that includes Oklahoma State. OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg spoke with Dave Hunziker in a podcast that released Friday, where Weiberg cleared things up from the OSU side of things.

“First of all, I give commissioner (Brett) Yormark a lot of credit for providing opportunities to the schools to look at,” Weiberg said. “He is an innovator. He pushes the envelope. He’s not afraid of trying new things to better the conference and all the member institutions. So, I think there’s a little bit of a misconception on this. This isn’t a private equity deal. There’s no ownership stake or control in the conference they’re taking. It’s more of a private investment opportunity. RedBird is a huge global entity. They’ve got a lot of partnerships. The conference office will get out of it some money to be able to invest in some other business entities, take an investment in those to try to grow revenues from a different revenue stream. I think that’s something that’s worth exploring in this time that we’re in. And then the schools have the option to opt into a line of credit through that, and that’s up to each institution. It doesn’t effect the deal with the conference itself.

“As of right now, that is something that Oklahoma State will not do at this point. Should we need something like that, we believe we have other avenues or levers we could pull first before that. But again, I applaud the commissioner for making those options available to us.”

Weiberg and Hunziker also got into some other financial matters, like the report last week that the Big Ten distributed a record $1.37 billion to its 18 members in the 2024-25 fiscal year — a jump of about $500 million. The SEC announced in February that it had distributed more than $1 billion to its 16 members for the fiscal year.

So, dividing that up, that’s about $76 million on average for each Big Ten school and about $62.5 million for each SEC school.

The Big 12 hasn’t announced its allocations yet, but Weiberg said he expects the average Big 12 distribution to come in “north of $35 million.”

“That’s a wide discrepancy,” Weiberg said. “It’s a wider discrepancy than we’ve ever seen in the history of college athletics.”

To try to level that playing field as much as possible, Weiberg said OSU has asked all of its programs to cut expenses by 10%, OSU has increased ticket prices and the Boys From Oklahoma concerts have also helped with that.

It’s an uphill battle, but Weiberg noted that OSU has had to compete with the likes of Texas, one of the highest-funded athletic departments in the country, for years.

“There’s a bigger discrepancy now between what some conferences are getting and what others are than there ever has been before,” Weiberg said. “So, that presents unique challenges in terms of just the level playing field. At the end of the day, when you’re in a competition, part of what makes the competition interesting is when you’re trying to compete on a level playing field. Now, I say that acknowledging that there’s never an exactly level playing field — I don’t care if its the NFL or Major League Baseball or whatever, there’s not that. But I think to keep it interesting, there needs to be some version of a level playing field, and that’s getting very tilted in this environment.

“We’ve competed before. We’ve never been the highest-resourced institution in our conference or in the country or anything like that, and we’ve competed at a very high level in all of our sports, from football through all the other sports. Obviously the 55 national championships are a great indicator of that.”

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Oklahoma

NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Lakers fall 2-0 down to Oklahoma City Thunder as Detroit Pistons double advantage over Cleveland Cavaliers

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Lakers fall 2-0 down to Oklahoma City Thunder as Detroit Pistons double advantage over Cleveland Cavaliers

Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each scored 22 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Lakers 125-107 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semi-final series.

Ajay Mitchell had 20 points and Jaren McCain added 18 for the defending champions, who improved to 6-0 in the playoffs. The Lakers will host Game 3 on Saturday.

The Lakers again were without scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is out indefinitely with a strained left hamstring. They also were missing forward Jarred Vanderbilt, the reserve forward who dislocated the pinkie finger on his right hand during the second quarter of Game 1.

The Lakers also had three players finish with five fouls, limiting their ability to be aggressive late in the game.

Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who struggled with his shot in Game 1, scored 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting in Game 2. LeBron James, coming off a 27-point effort in Game 1, followed that up with 23.

With the Lakers up 63-61 early in the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander got tied up with Reaves and was called for his fourth foul. Upon review, it was upgraded to a flagrant 1 for Gilgeous-Alexander’s follow through. Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso was called for a technical foul as the situation was being sorted out.

Gilgeous-Alexander left the game with the Lakers up 65-61, but the Thunder rallied and took control without him. On a fast break, Holmgren found a trailing Jaylin Williams, who hit a three-pointer and was fouled. His free throw put the Thunder up 85-74.

The Thunder outscored the Lakers 32-15 while Gilgeous-Alexander was out in the third quarter to take a 93-80 lead into the fourth. The Lakers cut Oklahoma City’s lead to five in the fourth quarter before the Thunder pulled away again.

Lakers coach Redick criticises referees

Lakers coach JJ Redick criticised the way James is officiated and Reaves complained about treatment from the referees after their defeat.

A number of Lakers players gathered around the referees at midcourt after the game and Reaves voiced his frustration to crew chief John Goble. He felt that while players were jockeying for position during a jump ball during the game, Goble crossed the line.

“At the end of the day, we’re grown men and I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that,” Reaves said. “I told him that. I wasn’t disrespectful. I told him if I did that to him first, I would’ve gotten a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I felt disrespected.”

Reaves, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes all finished with five fouls. The Thunder took 26 free throws to 21 for the Lakers.

Redick doesn’t think a team with the No 1 seed and the reigning MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs extra help from the officials.

“They’re hard enough to play,” Redick said. “They’re hard to play, and you’ve got to be able to just call them. They foul. They do foul.”

James, still effective at attacking the rim at age 41, has attempted just five throws in two games in the series.

“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen. The smaller guys, because they can be theatrical, they typically draw more fouls, and the bigger players that are built like LeBron, it’s hard for them,” Redick said. “They get clobbered, and he got clobbered again tonight a bunch.”

On several occasions, Lakers players were incredulous after calls – or no-calls – from the crew. While the Lakers talked to the officials during and after the game, the Thunder players stayed calm. Redick believes that might have helped them.

“I think some of the reason that they’re officiated the way they are is because they don’t show emotion,” Redick said. “And that’s a credit to them. I mean, they really take the emotion out of the game. They’re super tight-knit. They don’t complain to the officials, and maybe they’re the beneficiaries of that, I don’t know.”

Pistons continue winning streak to take 2-0 lead

Cade Cunningham had 25 points and 10 assists and Tobias Harris scored 21 points as the Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-97 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.

Game 3 is on Saturday in Cleveland, where the Cavs were 4-0 in the first round against Toronto.

The top-seeded Pistons have won five straight games since Orlando put them on the brink of elimination in the first round.

Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points and Jarrett Allen had 22 points and seven rebounds, bouncing back from a poor performance in Game 1 for the fourth-seeded Cavs.

James Harden, though, missed 10 of 13 shots and was limited to 10 points. Harden had four turnovers, including one with 33 seconds left when the Cavs trailed by just six.

Cleveland’s Max Strus scored just three points after he had 19 in the series opener. The Cavaliers went 0 for 11 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter, with Strus having four of the misses.

Detroit’s Duncan Robinson had 17 points, making 5-9 three-pointers, and Daniss Jenkins came off the bench to score 14 points, his third straight game in double figures.

Cleveland made the first shot and didn’t lead again until Evan Mobley’s dunk put the visitors ahead 81-79 early in the fourth quarter.

The Pistons led by 11 points in the first quarter and 14 in the second quarter, but they didn’t pull away until the final minutes.

The Cavs scored the first six points of the final quarter and Detroit responded with plays at both ends of the court.

Robinson had a tiebreaking three-pointer with 9:40 left and Cunningham made a three-pointer to put the Pistons ahead by nine points with 2:12 to go, sealing the victory.

The Pistons also won Game 1 by 10 points with both Cunningham and Mitchell scoring 23 points.

Cavs reserve guard Sam Merrill missed Game 2 with a hamstring injury after he was hurt in in the series opener. He averaged 12.8 points during the regular season and scored in double digits twice in the seven-game, first-round series against the Raptors.

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