Arkansas Attorney General Asks To Enter Oklahoma Poultry Case

Tuesday, May 2nd 2006, 3:41 pm

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe is asking a judge in Oklahoma to let him represent Arkansas' interests in a lawsuit against several Arkansas poultry companies.

Beebe -- who is running for governor in Arkansas -- says he wants to move to dismiss elements of the lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

The lawsuit accuses the poultry companies of polluting Oklahoma waterways and asks that the companies be ordered to pay the cost of cleaning up the water.

Beebe says in a news release the lawsuit threatens to slow or stop the progress of environmental improvements already agreed to by the two states and tries to impose Oklahoma laws on Arkansas.

The states agreed in 2003 to work together to reduce phosphorous levels in waterways in the Illinois River.