Chamber Pot and Poultry Polluters

The Poultry Community Council must think that it has a right to pollute our lakes and rivers and that it must do so to make big profits. Yesterday the Council of Chicken Corporations accused Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson of trying to destroy the poultry industry by requesting a preliminary injunction to halt the spreading of poultry litter in the Illinois River watershed. Water testing within the watershed has found fecal bacteria levels comparable to raw sewage.

Attorney General Edmondson is suing Arkansas poultry producers over the pollution of lakes and streams by chicken litter, because he believes we will face dire consequences if we do not protect our water quality. “Destroy the water and the farms will disappear and the people will leave the cities,” Edmondson told water managers and planners at an Oklahoma Governor’s Water Conference. “Destroy the water and you destroy the future for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its National Chamber Litigation Center have filed briefs in the case opposing Edmondson and supporting the chicken corporations, which one commentator said was calling in their friends "to help them pollute the legal waters” as well. You know where the local Chamber of Cowbirds stands on this issue.