OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced a nearly $44 million settlement resolving the state’s 21-year lawsuit against six poultry companies over poultry litter pollution in the Illinois River Watershed.
The state sued Tyson Foods, Cargill, George’s, Peterson Farms, Cal-Maine, and Simmons Foods in 2005. A federal judge found the companies liable in December 2025 and later rejected a narrower settlement involving four of the six companies. Drummond said the new agreement resolves the case in full and covers all six companies.
“This agreement allows us to turn the page on a dispute that has gone on for far too long,” Drummond said. “It protects Oklahoma’s water, provides certainty for our poultry industry, and shows that difficult problems can be solved through persistence and good-faith negotiation.”
Under the settlement, the companies would pay $41.7 million into an Environmental Relief Fund for watershed stewardship and litigation costs, $420,000 in penalties to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality Revolving Fund, and $1.9 million to fund an independent compliance monitor.
The agreement also requires the companies to reduce the amount of poultry litter removed from poultry houses each year that is applied to land within the watershed. Limits would decline from no more than 40% in the first two years, to 30% in years three and four, and 20% in years five through seven. Litter exported from the watershed to meet those limits could not be land-applied in another nutrient-sensitive watershed in Oklahoma.
The companies also would fund, or secure funding for, half the cost of installing vegetative buffers on qualifying poultry farms along Lake Tenkiller and the watershed’s scenic rivers.
In exchange, the state will move to set aside the December 2025 court judgment and close the lawsuit once the settlement is finalized. The settlement still requires court approval.
Gov. Kevin Stitt criticized the agreement, saying Drummond should have negotiated a settlement earlier.
“It is a shame that State Attorney General Gentner Drummond put our family-owned farmers through years of uncertainty and threats to ultimately reach the agreement I called for him to negotiate long ago,” Stitt said.
Stitt’s office said the proposed settlement could leave behind a “regulatory checkerboard” and encourage additional litigation against Oklahoma’s agriculture industry.
Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, offered a more supportive response, saying the agreement appeared to balance concerns about the watershed with the economic importance of poultry production in eastern Oklahoma.
“After more than two decades of litigation, I am encouraged that the state and all six poultry integrators have reached a new agreement,” Hardin said. “The agreement announced this week appears to offer a more balanced path that addresses concerns within the watershed while recognizing the importance of poultry production to our region.”
Hardin emphasized that the agreement is between the attorney general, acting on behalf of the state, and the six poultry companies and has not yet received court approval.
“There are still important steps ahead, but I am hopeful this agreement will bring this decades-long case closer to a responsible conclusion and provide greater certainty for eastern Oklahoma families,” Hardin said.
Drummond said the settlement protects both water quality and Oklahoma poultry growers.
“This settlement protects our water and Oklahoma’s thriving poultry growers,” Drummond said. “Families in this watershed have waited 21 years for that outcome.”
