State House committee revives animal waste legislation

Friday, April 14th 2006, 6:03 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma environmentalists say they are alarmed a bill declaring that animal waste is not a hazardous substance has been revived by a state House committee.

Lobbyist Keith Smith of the Sierra Club of Oklahoma says the measure supported by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and poultry producers is an attempt to undercut Oklahoma's right to protect its citizens' health.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson has said the legislation is a response to a lawsuit he filed last year. That suit accuses poultry producers of polluting streams in northeastern Oklahoma with tons of chicken litter laced with substances like arsenic, copper and zinc.

Leaders in the state Senate killed the measure last month. But the state House Agriculture Committee inserted the bill's language into a separate measure and sent it to the House floor for a vote.