Environmental: December 2008 Archives

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson says a federal judge erred in concluding that two environmental experts in a federal lawsuit against Arkansas poultry companies were not reliable. Poultry companies' attorneys claimed the work of Harwood and Olsen failed to pass the so-called Daubert test, a way judges scrutinize expert witnesses' work before it's presented to juries.

A 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. suggested judges look closely at the scientific evidence of expert witnesses that is meant for juries and encouraged judges to consider whether the work was published in scientific journals and subjected to peer scrutiny.

Harwood and Olsen testified they tracked fecal bacteria and chemical components of poultry litter as it moved from poultry farms to streams. Witnesses who testified for the poultry companies said they doubted the researchers could track litter or its components accurately.

Excerpted from NWAnews.com.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson says a federal judge erred in concluding that two experts in a federal lawsuit against Arkansas poultry companies were not reliable. In court papers filed Monday, Edmondson said District Court Judge Greg Frizzell was wrong to discount the testimony and research of Oklahoma's expert witnesses Jody Harwood and Roger Olsen.  Harwood, a University of South Florida biologist, and Olsen, an environmental expert with Cambridge, Mass., consultant Camp Dresser & McKee, testified in Edmondson's unsuccessful effort to obtain the preliminary injunction. Edmondson claims the practice allowing farmers to continue spreading poultry litter as fertilizer is an environmental and human health threat.

Excerpted from NWAnews.com.

Risk managers and insurers should prepare for an active hurricane season in 2009 if predictions by Tropical Storm Risk, a consortium of atmospheric science experts led by the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Center, are correct. TSR is projecting Atlantic basin hurricane activity and landfall in the United States will be 35% above normal in 2009.

A Colorado State University team, formed by forecasting pioneer William Gray, says 2009 would be another "above-average" hurricane season after an active 2008. They predict three of next year's hurricanes would be dangerous storms with a rank of Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.  Key factors that create above-average hurricane activity are warmer than normal sea surface temperatures and weaker-than-normal trade winds.

The Hays Daily News writes on the epic dispute between Colorado and Kansas over water rights to the Arkansas River:

Colorado already has agreed to pay its neighbor to the east more than $34 million after the high court decided in 1995 that groundwater pumping in Colorado diverted millions of gallons of upstream water that rightfully belonged to Kansas.

But Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six wants Colorado to pay an additional $9 million in expert witness fees. Six urged the justices to overturn a special master's ruling that limited witness fees to about $163,000.

"I believe the expert witness fees in this case were vital to the resolution," Six said.