Six companies agree to pay $44m and reduce poultry-litter runoff in a 20-year legal dispute over watershed contamination.
Six poultry companies, including Tyson Foods and Cargill, will pay $44m to settle a 20-year lawsuit over pollution in Oklahoma’s Illinois River Watershed. The agreement resolves allegations of poultry-litter contamination in the region’s waterways.
The settlement allocates $41.6m to an environmental relief fund, $1.9m for an independent compliance auditor, and $420,000 in penalties. Companies must also progressively reduce poultry-litter application in the watershed over seven years, starting with a 40% cap in the first two years.
As part of the deal, the firms will fund vegetative buffers on eligible farms to filter runoff before it enters Lake Tenkiller and nearby rivers.