Save the Illinois River President Denise Deason-Toyne issued this statement on July 10, 2025, on Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond's brief on Oklahoma's poultry lawsuit.
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STIR is pleased with the Brief and Proposed Final Order submitted by Attorney General Gentner Drummond. Both the brief and proposed order follow the Court's previous Orders/Findings and the requests for damages, remediation/mitigation are reasonable. STIR believes Judge Frizzell will likely adopt all or most of A.G. Drummond's proposal.
Attorney General Drummond has repeatedly said he would like to meet at the table with the poultry industry to frame a win-win situation whereby the parties, Oklahoma and Arkansas ,can maintain a robust poultry industry while also bringing improvements and protections to the precious Illinois River Watershed. While STIR would certainly support a win-win situation, we have reservations whether this is truly feasible given the history between the parties.
STIR has concerns that the poultry industry may continue the litigation process with appeals which will delay any action indefinitely. Attorney General Drummond has announced his candidacy for Governor and the two candidates vying to replace him are not known to be strong stewards of the environment. One in particular was hand picked by Governor Stitt who fired his Secretary of the Environment for doing his job by attending the hearings before Judge Frizzell last December. Stitt had urged the attorney general to drop the litigation.
We are hopeful that people who have an interest in clean water and, of course who doesn't, come together with the same energy and passion which brought STIR into existence, to persuade the parties to do the right thing and protect the water quality and our respective state's quality of life. Our futures depend on it.
