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Arkansas-Oklahoma Water Controversy


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Can't believe I never thought to start this topic yet. Masons_dad1 posted something that made me think of it. That and it seems to be back in the news also. Just to catch everyone up to speed although my time is a bit limited here. Oklahoma believes Arkansas' poultry farms are to blame for increased phosphorus levels on some Oklahoma waterways. Quite a bit of the NWA metro watershed actually goes west into OKlahoma. I certainly see Oklahoma's point on all of this. I think the biggest problem looking at it from an Arkansas standpoint is how Oklahoma has conducted itself all this time. First they never had proof they just assumed it was the poultry farms that were the cause of this. They didn't really try to work with Arkansas on this. They first came out basically threatening to sue us. Then they even came into Arkansas and tresspassed on people's property to try to set up water monitering devices without any notification. Apparently now they still aren't happy with Arkansas so now they've started hiring some big lawyers. As I said before I actually can see Oklahoma's concern and everything. But I just think if they had tried to sit down with Arkansas and tried to be more understanding and work with us this situation would be a lot better. It seems the only thing that will make them happy now is to totally shutdown the poultry industry here in NWA. Perhaps what Arkansas needs to do is moniter the water along the Arkansas River to see what Oklahoma is dumping in our water as well. And if we have to shut down the city of Tulsa until the water quality inproves, hey it's not out problem is it? I wonder how Oklahoma would feel then if we basically acted the way they have.

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A few NWA cities got some special recognition awards from the Oklahoma Attorney's Office for decreasing phosphorus levels in runoff. I know Rogers was one, but there's a few more as well. I hope this doesn't turn into a federal lawsuit, seeing as how a lot of the runoff into the Oklahoma waterways is from chicken waste. If Arkansas losses the lawsuit, it could be a big hit to our chicken/poultry industry.

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A few NWA cities got some special recognition awards from the Oklahoma Attorney's Office for decreasing phosphorus levels in runoff. I know Rogers was one, but there's a few more as well. I hope this doesn't turn into a federal lawsuit, seeing as how a lot of the runoff into the Oklahoma waterways is from chicken waste. If Arkansas losses the lawsuit, it could be a big hit to our chicken/poultry industry.

Yeah, granted the poultry industry is going to have to do something. But I'd hate to see this become the big mess that it looks like it could potentially become. I'm certainly not saying Arkansas is stalling, but I don't think that Oklahoma has done anything to get Arkansas to be more receptive. That's still my biggest problem with the whole thing is how Oklahoma handled the situation in the first place. I don't necessarily argue that the poultry industry does need to do more to help reduce phosphorus levels. That and the levels that Oklahoma expects them at seem ridiculously low.

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Didn't Tyson recently layoff some 500 employees due mainly to the Oklahoma dispute? I read about it somewhere (can't remember where). If we lose our poultry industry I don't think it'll hurt this area much but it may lead to a lot of poultry farms being sold to developers for less than they're worth.

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Didn't Tyson recently layoff some 500 employees due mainly to the Oklahoma dispute? I read about it somewhere (can't remember where). If we lose our poultry industry I don't think it'll hurt this area much but it may lead to a lot of poultry farms being sold to developers for less than they're worth.

I haven't heard any mention that Tyson had to lay people off because of the dispute. I don't think we would necessarily lose the poultry industry but would have to rely more on getting chickens from outside our area. I imagine more poultry farms are probably going to end up as housing subdivisions in the near future anyway.

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^

I may be mistaken. The layoffs didn't really have to do with the water controversy. I think they were in Russelville. Anyway, Tyson is not the only poultry producer in Arkansas being targeted by the Oklahoma law-suits. I wonder what measures these companies are now taking to insure that their farms aren't still polluting Oklahoma's water supply.

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^

I may be mistaken. The layoffs didn't really have to do with the water controversy. I think they were in Russelville. Anyway, Tyson is not the only poultry producer in Arkansas being targeted by the Oklahoma law-suits. I wonder what measures these companies are now taking to insure that their farms aren't still polluting Oklahoma's water supply.

Yeah Tyson is big enough to handle it but the smaller ones might be in for a hard time.

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