"In September 2022, a Delaware County judge issued a ruling in favor of a neighbor, who sued one of the poultry farms and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The judge ruled that the state agency did not consider whether issuing water well permits would cause pollution to surface and groundwater.

This legislative session, Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, whose district includes Delaware, Adair, Cherokee and Mayes counties, introduced House Bill 2053, which would make challenging water well permits for poultry operations more difficult and in some cases require the challengers to pay legal and other fees to the poultry operator. Hardin’s wife Lorri Hardin, a former Oklahoma Department of Agriculture employee, was contracted with Simmons Foods until March 2021 and helped create state-required poultry litter plans for many farms that have moved to Oklahoma, records show. David Hardin did not return phone messages from The Frontier seeking comment."

#TheFrontier #Oklahoma #PoultryFarms #PoultryMegaFarms
#DavidHardin #Stilwell #LorriHardin #SimmonsFoods

https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/in-oklahoma-neighbors-are-still-blindsided-when-poultry-mega-farms-move-in/