Tyson, et al

[achtung_circus]

From a clipping service to which I subscribe, primarily on animal health and welfare issues.

Pollution in the water, lawsuits in the air
28.aug.06
Washington Post
Juliet Eilperin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700849.html

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- Every time the rain comes down, muddy water laden with phosphorus, arsenic and other contaminants flows into the Illinois River from chicken farms nearby and just across the border in Arkansas.
The story says that the inflow of nutrients has begun to change the river and the reservoir it feeds, Tenkiller Ferry Lake. At times the water is clogged with fish-killing algae, occasionally emitting a foul odor that affects the drinking water and undercuts the area's attraction as a tourist destination.
Ed Brocksmith, a member of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, was quoted as saying, "This river used to be crystal clear. Phosphorus is the problem here."
Frustrated that nearly four years of talks failed to produce a solution, Oklahoma is now suing eight firms -- including Arkansas giant Tyson Foods Inc. -- on the grounds that the chicken waste applied to crops near the river contains hazardous chemicals that are damaging the ecosystem and jeopardizing the region's tourist industry.
Drew Edmondson, an Oklahoma lawyer who filed the suit last year, was quoted as saying, "They're not fertilizing, they're dumping. My concern is for the environment. My concern is for the lake and the river, which I'm watching being degraded before my eyes, literally."
Across the country, states and localities are suing polluters outside their jurisdiction, and sometimes each other, in efforts to curb air and water contamination that respects no borders. They say they are forced to act because Congress and the Bush administration have failed to crack down on everything from storm water runoff to dumping of invasive aquatic species.
In some cases, there is little in the way of federal law or regulation. This is the case with the factory farms in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The administration is still sorting through which regulations apply to poultry, dairy and hog farmers, and existing rules don't apply to those who buy the waste for fertilizer. And some lawmakers, such as Rep. Ralph M. Hall (R-Tex.), are lobbying to permanently exempt these industries from even minimal federal oversight.

On edit: Bolding added

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. There is a solution.

They can make oil from all that waste, check out oil from anything, Popular Mechanics Mag. not sure of date, but it was last year.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Thermal Depolymerization (TDP)

Yes, we know it well. :)

Well, maybe not as well as we'd want to. But pretty well. There was considerable discussion about it last year and the year before.

TDP, sadly, isn't The Solution, but it could be an excellent transition fuel, and it would help clean up the environment, too.

--p!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I grew up drinking pure water from the Ogallala Aquifer

but years of pesticides and fertilizer use have tainted it. :(