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The Latest on the Poultry Lawsuit

By Associated Press

Tulsa, OK – State's motion backs professor's testimony

TULSA, Okla. (AP) Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson says in a court filing that opinions by one of the state's expert witnesses in a poultry-litter pollution trial are based on sound science and weren't developed by attorneys to fit the lawsuit.

In a 109-page document filed Tuesday in federal court Drew Edmondson refutes a motion filed by 13 Arkansas poultry companies seeking to exclude the testimony of Valerie Harwood.

Edmondson wants to call Harwood as a witness in Oklahoma's 2005 lawsuit against the companies over allegedly polluting the 1 million-acre Illinois River watershed with bird waste.

A trial is expected to begin in September.

Harwood claims to have identified a poultry litter-specific "biomarker," and reportedly traced a path that contamination from poultry waste travels from fields into the watershed.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.