Residents buoyed by court ruling plan to ramp up poultry protests over well permits

KANSAS, Okla. — Northeastern Oklahoma residents who are tired of new and expanding poultry operations plan to send more protests to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

Delaware County District Judge Barry Denney granted a preliminary injunction last week in a case against the OWRB’s issuance of a series of six 90-day provisional permits to allow a poultry farm to operate for more than a year while the formal protest filed by nearby residents remained pending and unheard.

Residents thought it was time to celebrate the court victory.

“This was a first really big bright spot in two years of fighting,” said Green Country Guardians organizer Pam Kingfisher. “We needed to celebrate, and we have to keep this momentum going.”

They celebrated Monday night with a feast of turkey, ham, barbecue and side dishes, potluck-fashion, complete with a sheet cake adorned with a cartoon chicken and the words “No Clucking Way.”

The lead attorney on the case, Jason Aamodt of the Tulsa-based Indian and Environmental Law Group, walked residents through the case filed on behalf of residents who claimed that wells drilled near their homes threaten water quantity and allowed construction of a poultry operation that threatens to pollute both groundwater and above-ground water. The judge ruled that the OWRB could not issue successive 90-day permits and that the state failed to consider residents’ concerns about pollution.

Aamodt said residents should watch for the possibility of an attempted “legislative fix” on the issue and that his firm is pushing for an immediate appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“What we would like to do is we would like to get an order as quickly as we can from the highest court and get a final answer on these things,” he said. “We feel very strongly that Judge Denney reached a very good and reasonable conclusion that is required by law and that applies the facts in the right way. We want that upheld and to move forward.”

He characterized the state’s response thus far as “foot dragging.”

Attorney Matt Alison, who assisted on the case, said the state water board continues to issue the 90-day permits, including one just down the road and identical to the situation that drew the protest that the firm filed leading to Denney’s decision.

Alison said the law group flagged that permit but that the agency countered that the Denney decision applied only to one property.

“The day after the judge issued his order, the very next day the OWRB issued another (permit) in an identical situation,” he said.

In explaining the state’s system of permitting wells and an active bill, Senate Bill 1742 filed by Kim David, R-Porter, Aamodt revealed something that struck a chord with his audience — the wider ability to protest.

The OWRB issues two kinds of permits, both labeled “temporary.” One is a 90-day provisional temporary permit; the other is a regular temporary permit that is of a more permanent nature but can be amended or updated as situations change.

The judge’s ruling that the OWRB needs to consider water quality concerns opens the door to update permits previously issued that apparently only regarded legal ownership, beneficial use and waste, according to Aamodt.

SB 1742 fit into the discussion because the bill would limit OWRB well permit protests only to people who live within a quarter-mile of the proposed site.

Arbitrarily limiting protests on wells to people who live within a quarter mile is unconstitutional and is a question already addressed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Aamodt maintained.

“That portion of the bill is unconstitutional,” he said.

Protests can be filed by anyone who can demonstrate that their interests will be affected by the well, he said.

That was news to Kingfisher and to Emily Oakley, two who sounded the alarms on poultry expansion the summer of 2018 and organized early meetings that led to the creation of the Guardians and its active Facebook group.

“We were lied to for two years about who could protest,” Kingfisher said. “I was stunned by what we learned tonight. … The Water Board told us if you did not have (an OWRB notification letter) and did not live within a quarter mile you couldn’t protest. We held back because they lied, so now the gloves are off. We’re getting a list, and we’re going to be drafting letters,” she said.

Oakley said the judge’s ruling offered a way forward for the group.

“We finally have a tremendous amount of momentum behind us. We’ve had small wins up to now, but this is our first major win. We do not let this drop. We need to get together. We need to meet again, and we need to write letters on every single one of those wells,” she said.

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