LITTLE ROCK — The federal trial scheduled to begin Thursday in Tulsa is the latest skirmish between Arkansas and Oklahoma over water quality and pollution from poultry manure in rivers and streams flowing into Oklahoma.
1992 In a dispute between Oklahoma and Fayetteville over sewer plant discharges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled upstream states must meet water-quality limits of downstream states.
1997 The Arkansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Commission adopted a goal of reducing phosphorus in streams by 40 percent.
2001 The Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority sued six poultry companies and Decatur, Ark., accusing them of polluting the Eucha-Spavinaw watershed with bird manure and sewer plant discharges.
2002 March: The Oklahoma Water Resources Board approved a phosphorus limit in the Illinois River and other state-designated "scenic rivers." The limit allows up to 0.037 milligrams of phosphorus in each liter of water as rivers cross from Arkansas into Oklahoma.
August: Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a water-quality forum in Springdale that Arkansans can be trusted not to foul the Illinois River. "The rule of the playground is you don't pee in your own pool," Huckabee said.
2003 March: The Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority settled its lawsuit with poultry companies and Decatur. They agreed to pay $7.5 million, and poultry farmers agreed to reduce how much bird manure they spread. Decatur promised to improve sewer plant discharges.
August: Tyson Foods and other poultry companies formed a corporation called BMPs Inc. to haul poultry litter to farms outside the Illinois and Eucha-Spavinaw watersheds.
December: Months of negotiation between Oklahoma and five Northwest Arkansas cities led to an agreement about sewer plant discharges into the Illinois River watershed. Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs andSpringdale agreed to upgrade sewer plants to lower phosphorus discharges to meet a tougher standard coming in 2012.
2005 June: Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued eight poultry companies with operations in Arkansas in U.S. District Court at Tulsa, accusing them of polluting the watershed. The defendants were Cal-Maine Foods Inc. of Jackson, Miss.; Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis; Cobb-Vantress Inc.
and Simmons Foods Inc., both of Siloam Springs; George's Inc. of Springdale; Peterson Farms Inc. of Decatur; Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale; and Willow Brook Foods of Springfield, Mo.
Oct. 4: Poultry companies asked a federal judge to add more than 160 entities in Oklahoma to the lawsuit.
The companies contend small cities with sewer plants, lake marinas, golf courses and businesses with septic tanks contribute pollution to the Illinois River watershed and that it's unfair for Edmondson to target the poultry companies.
2006 Sept. 21: A federal judge culled the160 businesses and organizations from Edmondson's lawsuit. The matter is now considered a separate lawsuit, filed by the poultry companies against the 160 groups.
2007 Sept. 6: U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) told Edmondson during an appearance before the Senate Committee on Public Works that the attorney general's lawsuit against the poultry companies is a misuse of federal laws.
"Oklahoma's lawsuit is litigation gridlock with endless court motions and no resolution," Bond said.
"That does not improve the environment." Nov. 14: Edmondson asked the federal court for a preliminary injunction to ban the spreading of poultry litter as fertilizer in the watershed. Edmondson claimed the manure in litter makes it "solid waste" under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976.
2008 Sept. 29: A federal judge rejected Oklahoma's attempt to ban the spreading of poultry litter asfertilizer in the watershed. The judge also said the work of two of Oklahoma's key expert witnesses was "not sufficiently reliable." November: Poultry companies requested that District Judge Greg Frizzell dismiss Edmondson's lawsuit against the companies because he failed to include the Cherokee Nation.
2009 Feb. 13: Edmondson announced that an investigation of a man's death at a Locust Grove, Okla., restaurant and the E. coli illnesses of 313 people who ate there may have been caused by poultry litter.
March 11: The Oklahoma Department of health found harmful E. coli strains in three of 17 wells near Locust Grove, but the agency said the contamination did not come from poultry litter. The type of E. coli found usually comes from cattle or sheep, but not chickens, officials said.
May: Edmondson told the court that he will represent the Cherokee Nation's interests in the lawsuit.
July 22: Frizzell declared Edmondson's May agreement with the Cherokee Nation to be invalid.
Frizzell said Edmondson's claims for $611.5 million in natural resource damages cannot continue without the Cherokee Nation.
Aug. 14: Frizzell ruled poultry litter could be classified as solid waste under federal law if spread in excess. The judge later acknowledged that the issue is "very gray." The judge also allowed Willow Brook Foods to pay a $120,000 settlement to Oklahoma and be dropped from the lawsuit.
Sept. 2: The Cherokee Nation asked for permission to intervene in the federal lawsuit filed against the poultry companies.
Sept. 15: Frizzell denied the Cherokee's request to join the lawsuit, saying the tribe should have asked sooner.
Thursday: Opening statements are scheduled to begin in Tulsa. The trial is expected to take up to eight weeks.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/23/2009