Oklahoma has reached a nearly $44 million settlement with six poultry companies, bringing an end to a lawsuit over pollution in the Illinois River Watershed that has been in court for more than two decades.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced the proposed settlement, which resolves claims against Tyson Foods, Cargill, George’s, Peterson Farms, Cal-Maine and Simmons Foods. The state filed the lawsuit in 2005, alleging poultry litter contributed to pollution in the watershed. A federal judge found the companies liable in December 2025, but rejected an earlier proposed settlement this spring.
Under the agreement, the companies will pay more than $41.6 million into an environmental relief fund, $420,000 in penalties to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and $1.9 million to fund an independent compliance monitor. The settlement also requires the companies to gradually reduce the amount of poultry litter applied within the watershed over the next seven years, help fund vegetative buffer projects and submit to annual compliance audits.
“This agreement allows us to turn the page on a dispute that has gone on for far too long,” Drummond said. “It protects Oklahoma’s water, provides certainty for our poultry industry, and shows that difficult problems can be solved through persistence and good-faith negotiation.”
The settlement must still receive court approval. If approved, the state will ask the court to set aside its previous judgment and dismiss the lawsuit.
Governor Kevin Stitt criticized the agreement, saying it took too long to reach and arguing it created unnecessary uncertainty for Oklahoma poultry producers.
“It is a shame that State Attorney General Gentner Drummond put our family-owned farmers through years of uncertainty and threats to ultimately reach the agreement I called for him to negotiate long ago,” Stitt said.
