020214 Sierra Looks to Sue Chicken Farms

Louisville, KY - An environmental group is taking steps to sue four western Kentucky chicken farms, arguing that they should be likened to huge factories that emit toxins regulated by the federal government.

The Sierra Club's lawsuit against the farms, which are contracted by chicken giant Tyson Foods, can come only after it serves notice to Tyson and the farms, said Barclay Rogers, a San Francisco-based attorney for the Sierra Club. The 60-day notice was mailed to the four farms and Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson on Tuesday.

“The main issue here is that these aren't family farms. They're massive concentrations of chicken farms,” Rogers said. “These are more factories than they are farms. They generate a sufficient quantity of ammonia to trigger reporting requirements under our toxic laws.”

On Tuesday, a small group of protesters wearing dust masks and carrying signs that read, “Clean Up Big Chicken,” and “We All Need Clean Air,” stood in front of the federal courthouse in Louisville to call attention to the potential suit.

The farms, which grow the Tyson-owned chickens in Hopkins, McLean and Webster counties in western Kentucky, can maintain up to 600,000 chickens, Rogers said. The suit would cite the federal Superfund law, the Clean Air Act and the Community-Right-To-Know Act due to the excessive amounts of ammonia and dust particles emitted by the farms, Rogers said.

Ed Nicholson, a spokesman for Tyson, said there have been no comprehensive studies that would scientifically measure how much ammonia is released from such an operation. He noted that ammonia is also naturally released from farm fertilizer and organic wastewater treatment plants.

“There's really no science to support it,” Nicholson said. He noted that the Environmental Protection Agency is studying the matter, though it hasn't offered any guidelines on how to report agriculturally produced ammonia.

The defendants that would be named in the lawsuit are Roland Buchanan, the Adams Chicken Farm and Tyson Foods Inc. and its affiliates, Rogers said. Two of the four farms have 24 chicken houses that hold about 600,000 chickens, while the other two have 16 houses that hold up to 400,000 birds, he said.

Rogers said the group is alleging that the farms emit more than 100 pounds of ammonia per day, which would require a permit under the federal Superfund law. And the Clean Air Act requires factories to report their emissions if they spew more than 100 tons of dust per year, another figure that Rogers said should be reported by the farms.

“Our objective is to force Tyson to report the release of these hazardous substances, so their neighbors can know what's being emitted next door,” he said.

One of those neighbors, McLean County resident Bernadine Edwards, said she lives within three miles of 82 of the chicken houses.

“It's pretty bad when your 3-year-old grandson goes out to play, comes back inside and says it stinks out there,” said Edwards, who joined the protesters outside the courthouse in Louisville. “It's not a good life.”

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com