The proposed class-action suit alleges that chicken parts from two OK Foods operations owned by OK Industries overwhelmed treatment facilities in Sequoyah and LeFlore counties and then flowed untreated into tributaries of the Arkansas River.
"I've spoken to residents who've seen chicken guts and parts on the banks," said Tulsa attorney Charles Shipley, who filed the suit.
"It rots on the banks . . . and sucks the oxygen out of the water so all the fish die."
OK Industries officials would not comment on the lawsuit, a company secretary said Wednesday.
The original plaintiffs are Charles E. Smith, of Sequoyah County, and two LeFlore County men, Curtis Faulkenberry and Jack Frost. Shipley is asking for the lawsuit to be certified as a class action so that any residents who live within the allegedly polluted area can join as plaintiffs.
The Sequoyah County lawsuit joins recent filings in Mayes County and in federal court in Tulsa against Tyson Foods and other poultry companies. The city of Tulsa filed its federal suit alleging that Tyson and others have polluted the city's raw drinking-water supply.
The importance of the newest suit, Shipley said, is that LeFlore and Sequoyah counties now define "the southern boundary" in the legal war on poultry waste.
"This makes a full deck," he said. "I think the year 2002 will be the year where the chicken industry is brought to heel."
The Sequoyah County lawsuit alleges that waste from a packaging plant near Muldrow overwhelmed that community's sewer treatment capabilities.
The result, Shipley said, is that chicken grease and some parts flowed untreated into the Poague Branch of Big Skin Bayou. That water eventually reaches the Arkansas River.
Shipley said he has seen Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality records indicating that the Muldrow city manager filed complaints about OK Foods sending too much waste for the municipal plant to handle.
The other part of the suit contends that an OK Foods slaughter and deboning operation near Heavener also overwhelmed a treatment plant that discharges into Morris Creek. That tributary flows into the Poteau River, which eventually winds northward into the Arkansas River.
"Talk to people down there," Shipley said. "They say, `We used to swim there, we used to fish there.' "
Despite reported complaints to the DEQ, Shipley said he knew of no cases in which the agency has reprimanded the poultry companies.
"The DEQ has the data, but they have to rely on people like us to do anything with it," he contended.
Rod Walton, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8457 or via e-mail at [email protected].