By Associated Press
Tulsa, OK – State's motion backs professor's testimony
TULSA, Okla. (AP) Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson says in a court filing that opinions by one of the state's expert witnesses in a poultry-litter pollution trial are based on sound science and weren't developed by attorneys to fit the lawsuit.
In a 109-page document filed Tuesday in federal court Drew Edmondson refutes a motion filed by 13 Arkansas poultry companies seeking to exclude the testimony of Valerie Harwood.
Edmondson wants to call Harwood as a witness in Oklahoma's 2005 lawsuit against the companies over allegedly polluting the 1 million-acre Illinois River watershed with bird waste.
A trial is expected to begin in September.
Harwood claims to have identified a poultry litter-specific "biomarker," and reportedly traced a path that contamination from poultry waste travels from fields into the watershed.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.