Rick Stubblefield, Adair County representative of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission wrote a
letter to the Tahlequah Daily Press, in which he explains that the claims made by the private attorney's Oklahoma Drew Edmondson has hired to represent Oklahoma against the Poultry industry, are "a joke," to the farmers in the Illinois Watershed area:
...[T}here is just not enough poultry litter being produced to satisfy demand. Despite the exaggerated claims of Drew Edmondson, a chicken house only produces about 120 tons of poultry litter a year – and state agency records and assessor records show there are about 1,650 poultry houses in the Illinois River watershed. That gives the farming community about 200,000 total tons of poultry litter to use every year. Farmers outside the watershed use manure transfer program tax breaks to pay more than farmers in the watershed can afford to pay. The end result? There is not much left to use as fertilizer on fields in the Illinois River watershed.
He credits the
Oklahoma Poultry Litter Transfer Program, for the shortage in the watershed area, explaining:
Farmers outside the watershed use manure transfer program tax breaks to pay more than farmers in the watershed can afford to pay. The end result? There is not much left to use as fertilizer on fields in the Illinois River watershed.... (more)
To learn more about Oklahoma's Poultry Litter Transfer Program, see:
Labels: Drew Edmondson, Poultry Lawsuit
Posted at 2/27/2008 10:13:00 AM
