TULSA - Poultry litter should be viewed as solid waste as defined by federal law, U. S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell said Monday afternoon.

Frizzell said he's been considering how poultry litter fits into the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, legislated in 1976.

Oklahoma seeks a preliminary injunction banning farmers from spreading poultry litter on farm fields in the Illinois River watershed. The state must prove that spreading litter is a threat to human health and that litter is "solid waste" under federal law.

"Under RCRA [the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ], this is likely solid waste," Frizzell said.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued eight poultry companies in 2005, claiming that poultry litter threatens human health in the watershed and that it should be considered solid waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The watershed includes areas of Northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma.

A portion of the federal law defines solid waste as "any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from" agricultural and other types of operations.

Frizzell's comment struck a blow to poultry companies fighting the injunction in a federal court hearing.

Attorneys for the poultry companies said they were surprised to hear the judge's comment because he hasn't heard all of their expert witnesses testify about the importance of poultry litter as a crop fertilizer.

Edmondson, who sought the injunction in November, said during a break in courtroom testimony that he was encouraged by Frizzell's declaration about poultry litter.

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