"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/

In #Oklahoma, neighbors are still blindsided when poultry mega-farms move in

"Even the tiny legal notice Strang residents found in the newspaper —  for an environmental impact study on the new poultry farm required for a federal agricultural loan — contained incorrect information about where to send public comments.
. . .
Residents began gathering signatures on a petition to stop the poultry farm from moving in, but only then learned that the address for correspondence in the legal notice was incorrect, said  Halle Million, who owns a home and ranch neighboring the proposed site. 
. . .
Residents said they have reached out to some elected officials, but have yet to hear any concrete solutions, and said they feel that the state’s current system is heavily skewed in favor of the large poultry companies.

Strang’s representative in the state House of Representatives, Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, works as an executive at Simmons Foods, the integrator for the poultry operation planned in Strang. West did not return phone messages from The Frontier seeking comment."

--> More shady business in Oklahoma. It's not the only gem in the article, though. Reese Gorman is a an amazing fixture in Oklahoma journalism.

#SimmonsFoods #Strang #Oklahoma #JoshWest #PoultryFarms #PoultryMegaFarms #ReeseGorman

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