Published: July 01, 2009 11:20 am      

Poultry companies ask for delay of Sept. 21 trial

TULSA — A dozen Arkansas poultry companies being sued by Oklahoma's attorney general for polluting the Illinois River watershed with chicken waste have asked a judge to postpone the trial.

The companies said they want to push back the Sept. 21 trial date because they need more time to handle all the paperwork from Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office. The companies said his office has been submitting hundreds of pages of expert testimony and sampling data.

"Despite this court's repeated admonitions and instructions, plaintiffs have continued with improper attempts to supplement their expert-based case with new sampling data and previously undisclosed expert analyses and opinions," according to the motion filed Tuesday in Tulsa federal court.

The companies' motion also argues that the case is "unusually complex," and that "billions of dollars" in compensatory and punitive damages could be at stake.

"Defendants simply are unable to prepare for trial while they are forced continually to file a series of motions to stop plaintiffs from changing their expert case at the last minute," the motion said.

Charlie Price, a spokesman for the attorney general, said the office is against a delay.

"The court has set a date, and the state is ready," Price said Wednesday.

Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods Inc., one of the 12 companies named in Edmondson's lawsuit, said it is not uncommon for the start of a trial to be delayed, especially in a complex case like this, "where there are currently 30 pretrial motions pending before the judge."

"We believe postponing the trial a few months will give the court time to fully consider these motions," Mickelson said in a statement Wednesday. "This is important because the court's rulings on these matters could significantly reduce the number of issues and witnesses at trial and help streamline the proceeding."

Edmondson sued 13 companies in 2005, claiming that bacteria from the over-application of poultry litter in the 1-million-acre watershed leeches into the groundwater, springs and wells.

One of the companies, Springfield, Mo.-based Willow Brook Foods Inc., recently proposed to pay $120,000 to settle its portion of the case. The company operated only eight of the 1,800 poultry houses estimated to be in the watershed, and no longer is in the poultry business in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma-Arkansas region supplies roughly 6 percent of the nation's poultry, and is among several areas nationally where the industry is most concentrated.

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