Judge Gregory K. Frizzell has ruled that the two expert witnesses who would have testified that bacterial
loads in the Illinois Watershed are due to field application of poultry
litter and other poultry waste will not be permitted to testify. Oklahoma Attorney
General Drew Edmondson has sued seven poultry companies with
headquarters and/or operations in Arkansas
for contamination of the rivers and streams in the watershed. In a
ruling last month, Judge Frizzell said Edmondson, should he
prevail, could not seek the $615 million in monetary damages he sought
to collect.
Frizzell said the two witnesses -- Valerie Harwood, a microbiology expert at the University of South Florida, and Roger Olsen, an independent chemistry expert based in Denver, CO, based their conclusions on research methods that have never passed
rigorous peer review and that Olsen's conclusions were subjective. An Edmondson spokesperson said the attorney general's office is
disappointed in the ruling but said Harwood's and Olsen's testimony is
not essential to the case, which "remains intact and strong."
Excerpted from FeedStuffs.com.
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