Arkansas company to build up to 50 chicken houses

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Arkansas company is building up to 50 chicken houses just inside the Arkansas line seven months after abandoning plans to build 90 houses in Oklahoma. <br><br>Prosper Farms gave

Thursday, August 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Arkansas company is building up to 50 chicken houses just inside the Arkansas line seven months after abandoning plans to build 90 houses in Oklahoma.

Prosper Farms gave up plans to build chicken houses in Ottawa County after heated protests and a refusal by the local water district to sell water to the company.

Ten houses are being built south of Maysville, Ark., and other houses are under construction in various locations, said Buddy Pilgrim, Prosper Farms spokesman and chief executive of Simmons Foods.

He would not say how many additional houses are being built or their locations.

``It's a normal business activity, and I will not comment any further,'' Pilgrim said.

Ten houses north of Maysville appear to be complete, 10 more are under construction and heavy equipment is moving soil around about 10 more sites for houses, The Oklahoman reported Thursday. South of Maysville, 10 houses are under construction and sites are being prepared for 10 additional houses.

The houses are within about two miles of Beaty Creek, a small stream that feeds into Lake Eucha.

New laws in Oklahoma restrict construction of poultry houses in the state.

``Prosper Farms was prevented from entering Oklahoma, but unfortunately they are going to be in our watersheds with the construction of these new broiler houses,'' state Agriculture Secretary Dennis Howard said. ``These are not family farmers who are putting a total of more than 8 million new chickens (per year) in the threatened watersheds. It is a corporation.''

A study completed in the 1990s showed that runoff from chicken waste used to fertilize fields is a major factor in creating high phosphorus levels in Tulsa's main drinking water sources, Eucha and Spavinaw lakes.

Phosphorus encourages algae growth, robbing water of oxygen needed by aquatic life. It also causes odor and a foul taste that is expensive for Tulsa to eliminate.

The poultry industry says chicken waste is not polluting waterways. Pilgrim said the new houses have an 18-inch perimeter wall to prevent chicken waste from spreading.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said in March he was on the verge of suing several Arkansas poultry companies for polluting state waterways.

Arkansas asked Oklahoma to back off or face stricter rules on chloride _ produced by petrochemical industry runoff _ in the Arkansas River, which flows through Oklahoma into Arkansas.

With both states agreeing to negotiate, news of Prosper Farm's additional houses came as a surprise to the Oklahoma attorney general's office.

``It does increase the importance of these negotiations,'' said Edmondson's spokesman, Charlie Price. ``We said all along that we would hold off on lawsuits as long as we felt negotiations were moving along. We still feel that way.''