A federal judge on Thursday set closing arguments for Feb. 11 in the state’s lawsuit involving the poultry industry’s alleged role in polluting the Illinois River watershed. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell, who is presiding over the trial, which began Sept. 24 in Tulsa, gave the parties until Feb. 5 to submit proposed written findings to the court. The state’s lawsuit against the poultry industry, filed in 2005, alleges that poultry companies are legally responsible for the handling and disposal of poultry waste – also known as litter – that the state says has damaged portions of the Illinois River watershed.
Attorneys representing the poultry industry rested their case Wednesday, but trial testimony is not quite over. On Thursday, Frizzell granted the state’s request to allow rebuttal testimony by a pair of pollution expert witnesses. The court scheduled that to take place Jan. 25-26.
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