"It is clear they (poultry producers) run his state," Edmondson said. "Just like me, most Oklahomans care more about clean water than anything Gov. Huckabee has to say."

And, Dunn, Edmondson said, isn't interested in clean water.

"James Dunn has done nothing to help Oklahomans," he said. "He would allow these companies to pollute the water."

Dunn countered, saying Edmondson's suit against out-of-state poultry producers was "just a license to steal...like he did last time."

"The poultry case is about the fees Edmondson wants to pay his buddy, Mike Turpen," Dunn said.

Earlier this year, Dunn said Edmondson's lawsuit "would devastate" the state's agriculture industry. He said the poultry industry, working with state officials in Oklahoma and Arkansas, could use a "cooperative spirit" to clean up pollution. "Oklahoma has a history of fixing problems," he said. "They (the poultry industry) could do like the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board. There, the oil industry cleaned up its abandoned well sites."

Dunn's charges have been echoed by various poultry groups in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Keith Morgan, a spokesman for Poultry Partners, Inc., claimed a fact sheet presented to the Oklahoma Scenic River Commissioners by state Secretary of Environment Miles Tolbert -- on Edmondson's behalf -- was "a display of inaccurate information."

In an editorial printed this summer, Morgan said Tolbert and Edmondson "failed to do their jobs" in providing current and correct data for the commissioners.

As an example, Morgan cites the number of poultry houses and the tons of litter they produce.

"If the two didn't do their homework and they really don't know how many active poultry houses are in the watershed or how much litter is generated in those houses, that is a display of incompetence on their part," Morgan wrote. "We find it hard to believe they aren't aware of the number of poultry houses or tons of litter they are talking about."

Morgan claims there are only 1,694 poultry houses in the watershed, instead of the 3,057 number used by Edmondson.

The 1,694-house number was a "head count," Morgan said, conducted by the poultry industry as of 4 p.m. on Aug. 29.

Edmondson said Morgan's claim is wrong.

In fact, Edmondson said, he had the actual number of poultry houses counted.