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Okla. AG, Ark. governor spar over chicken waste

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Ed-mondson is playing politics by demonizing the poultry industry and setting unrealistic goals for reduced pollution levels in Oklahoma’s rivers.

“Unfortunately, your attorney general is not interested in resolving the situation. He’s more interested in headlines,” Huckabee said Oct. 11. “It’s a great political platform for him.”

Huckabee, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, was in Tulsa Oct. 11 at the start of a two-day swing through Oklahoma to support Republican candidates running for office in next month’s mid-term elections.

Edmondson is suing Arkansas poultry companies, contending their chicken litter is fouling Oklahoma waterways.

Huckabee said Edmondson proposed a standard to reduce phosphorous levels in Okla-homa’s six scenic rivers that “has no scientific basis of possibility” and has set an “unachievable timetable” in which to reach those levels.

Huckabee, who is term-limited as governor and leaves office early next year, also accused Edmondson of being more of
a friend to the attorneys who stand to get rich litigating the pollution fight than environmentalists.

But in a statement released from his office, Edmondson called Huck-abee “a poultry company apologist.”

Last year, Edmondson brought a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against 14 poultry companies, ac-cusing them of polluting the Illinois River.

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Topics Oklahoma Pollution