Published: July 28, 2008 12:00 am            

Edmondson talks about importance of water

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson reminded attendees of the Oklahoma Water Law Seminar on Monday of a Willliam Jennings Bryan speech where he said if cities were destroyed they would be rebuilt and if farms were destroyed, grass will grow in the streets of the cities.

"But if you destroy our water, if we lose it, if we ruin it, if we don't conserve it, if we aren't careful with it, we'll lose our cities. We'll lose our farms. And even the grass won't grow," Edmondson said. "There is no more critical issue long range when we're talking about our children and our grandchildren than the issue that you all are going to be wrestling with and have been wrestling with already."

He said Oklahoma has been blessed with abundant natural resource, like oil, natural gas, wind and agricultural resources.

"All have been extremely important for Oklahoma, but there is none more important than water," Edmondson said. "I'm glad you're here to do something about it.

He talked about the litigation Oklahoma has been part of that involved water.

The state is in court with the Tarrant Regional Water District over their application for water from the Kiamichi River, Cache Creek and Beaver Creek, all of which flow into the Red River.

"They have asked in their request for water for more water to be allocated out of those streams than the total amount being allocated for all purposes --?municipal, agricultural, they've asked for more than all the allocations of water than exist in all the state of Oklahoma," he said.

Edmondson said under the Red River Water Compact, the Texans are entitled to take water out of the Red.

"But it has a higher saline content, it's not as clean and pure as the water in the Kiamichi, the Beaver and the Cache. They want to take water before it flows into the Red River. We're opposing that application. As are downstream states like Arkansas and Louisiana, because it's pretty easy to figure out that if you take the pure water and remove it before it moves into the Red, the Red is going to be even more saline than it is today," he said.

His office also has been in litigation over the Arbuckle Simpson and Ogallala aquifers.

"The Ogallala and creeks and streams over there that were threatened by very large hog farms. And we were in litigation for Seaborne Pig Improvement Facilities ... over proposed facilities and we've battled them over offsets and setbacks adopted in rules from the Department of Agriculture," Edmondson said.

His office has spent almost $19 million on the lawsuits against poultry producers like Tyson and Simmons over degradation of the Illinois River Watershed.

"We're dealing with a multi-billion industry and we knew it wasn't going to be easy going in," he said.

They have hired firms to do analysis, expert witnesses, had field surveys done and hired field inspectors to go out and take the samples.

Edmondson said Oklahoma is saying to the poultry industry, "You can't continue to surface apply it because it is running off and getting into the streams and particularly the phosphorus is causing what the Oklahoma agronomists call eutrophication, which is algae growth. ... And eventually it sucks the oxygen out."

He said the poultry producers are applying the poultry waste to a million acres -- about half in Arkansas and half in Oklahoma.

"The amount that goes down annually would equal the untreated waste of 10.7 million human beings. If you can imagine, that's more than the population of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas combined," Edmondson said. "Instead of running it through a sewage treatment plant, they're taking it out and spreading it on the land. That's what's happening in terms of phosphorus

He said he believes they finally have a firm court date in September 2009.

"The manner in which this waste is going down qualifies as either hazardous waste or solid waste under federal law and should be either controlled or regulated," he said. "In the course of doing that, we've learned things about the deposit of poultry waste in the watershed that went beyond the issues of nitrogen and phosphorus and algae and eutrophication. And the concurrent problems of municipal water supplies when they have to increase their treatment of chlorine treatment in order to take care of that algae, they produce a byproduct of chlorination called trihalomethanes, which are carcinogens."

He called the choice of the people in the watershed a hostage choice.

"That is, their water can taste and smell not quite as good as they like it. Or they can elevate their cancer risk. Now, that's not really a good choice for people. We want clean water, we want clear water, we want pure water that tastes good and smells good, without increasing our risk of contracting cancer," Edmondson said.

He said one in 100 who swam in the Illinois River could get gastroenteritis, with experts finding bacteria like e coli and salmonella in that river's water.

"There's only one (body of water) that attracts 150,000 recreational users every year that don't just fish in the water, that don't just boat in the water. But they swim in the water (in the Illinois River.) They get in it and some of them get in it on purpose and some of them get in it because they don't know how to canoe. But they get in the water in the summer months in the thousands and when you talk about one in 100 getting sick. And you are talking about 1,000 to 1,500 getting sick because of primary body contact," he said.

He asked why more isn't said about the dangers of the river.

"They show up throughout the summer. They come from communities all over the state Oklahoma ... and Arkansas and Missouri and Kansas," Edmondson said.

He said the symptoms are similar to food poisoning, with diarrhea and vomiting.

Experts found bacteria in water had the same chemical and DNA signatures as samples that were taken from the barns themselves and pastures matched the creeks and streams.

"(One expert witness) testified that the bacteria samples taken from the barns themselves to the fields upon which the litter was spread, to the edge of the field to the creeks and streams, to the Illinois River, to Lake Tenkiller, he test that these bore the chemical sign of the litter he found on the floors of the barns where the chickens were being raised.

Edmondson said it was the witnesses' professional opinion that the bacteria in the river came predominately from the litter in the fields in the Illinois River watershed.

Dr. Valerie Harwood, who has a doctorate in biomedical sciences, found similar results with DNA sampling.

Harwood said the bacteria in the Illinois River watershed "presents a substantial, serious and immediate threat to human health."

Dr. Robert Morris of Harvard University said the bacteria in the river is a real and present threat, not only to the 150,000 that recreate within the Illinois River watershed, but also to the 1,700 shallow wells from which people take drinking water in the Illinois River watershed.

"It's an extremely serious situation, both in terms of the environmental harm that's being caused and also because of the threat to human health," Edmondson said.

He said that's why it's so important to look at the future of Oklahoman and the use of water now and in the future.

"There is no more critical issue than the use -- the wise use -- of water," Edmondson said.

Carol Cole-Frowe 366-3538 ccole@normantranscript.com

        

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