PRAIRIE GROVE — Clods of poultry litter, infused with the smell of ammonia and a tinge of rotten molasses, are piled 8 feet high in a rustic shed on Jerry Hunton's farm about seven miles south of Prairie Grove.
Hundreds of tons of this poultry litter "de-cake" are scraped out of chicken barns after each flock moves on. The stuff often is used instead of expensive fertilizer on cow pastures and helps poultry farmers eke out a living when they sell it to other farmers.
But piles like this are the focus of a lawsuit against the poultry industry in Northwest Arkansas. In 2005, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued Tyson Foods Inc., Simmons Foods Inc., Peterson Farms, George's Inc. and other poultry companies with contracts in the Illinois River watershed. His lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma claims the company's growers severely polluted the river by spreading the litter.
For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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