Opinion ID: 172146
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Oklahoma's pleadings

Text: In the Second Amended Complaint, Oklahoma alleged that the Poultry Integrators' land application of poultry litter constituted both a known risk to the waters of the IRW and a known cause of harm to those waters: In sum, each of the Poultry Integrator Defendants has long known that such poultry waste disposal practices [i.e., land application of poultry litter] present the threat that constituents of poultry waste will run off and be released into and from the land to which the poultry waste is applied[,] thereby potentially adversely impacting the IRW, including the biota, lands, waters and sediments therein, and that such practices have in fact resulted in constituents of poultry waste running off and being released into and from the land to which the poultry waste is applied[,] thereby adversely impacting the IRW, including the biota, lands, waters and sediments therein. (Aple. Supp.App. vol. 1 at 50-51, ¶ 56 (emphasis added).) Likewise, Oklahoma alleged, the Poultry Integrators have long known that poultry waste contains a number of constituents that can and do cause harm to the environment and pose human health hazards. ( Id. at 51, ¶ 57.) Those constituents were then alleged to include pathogenic bacteria. ( Id. at 51, 52, ¶¶ 57(g), 63.) The State went on to allege that in a recent open letter published to the citizens of Oklahoma, certain of the defendants admitted that their poultry waste ` potentially impact[s] the health of the rivers and streams' within Oklahoma's scenic watersheds. ( Id. at 53, ¶ 65 (emphasis added).) Finally, in laying out its cause of action under RCRA's citizen-suit provision, Oklahoma alleged that [a]n imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment may be presented and is in fact presented as a direct and proximate result of each of the Poultry Integrator Defendants' respective contribution to the handling, storage, treatment, transportation or disposal of poultry waste in the IRW and lands and waters therein. ( Id. at 59, ¶ 94.) The State requested that the defendants be enjoined to take all such... action as may be necessary to abate the imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment. ( Id. at ¶ 95.) In its Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Integrated Brief in Support Thereof, Oklahoma argued that [b]oth the surface water and the groundwater of the IRW are highly susceptible to pollution from land application of animal waste because of the terrain and the geology of th[e] area. (Aplt.App. vol. III at 701.) The risk of pollution to the IRW's waters, according to Oklahoma, arises from the region's karst terrain, which allows for ready transport of land applied poultry waste, including the fecal bacteria in this waste, into the surface water and the groundwater in the IRW. ( Id. ) These fecal bacteria, the State argued, present[] an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health, as they may cause a number of infectious diseases. ( Id. at 703-06.) In support of this theory of endangerment, Oklahoma quoted from Defendant Peterson Farms's Poultry Water Quality Handbook: Animal waste is a potential source of some 150 disease-causing organisms or pathogens.... When found in water or wastes, these pathogens pose significant threats to humans and other animals through drinking water, contact with the skin, or consumption of fish or other aquatic animals. Most pathogens die relatively quickly. However, under the right conditions, they may live long enough to cause problems. They persist longer in groundwater than in surface water. ( Id. at 706 n. 6.) The State went on to quote extensively from this court's explication, in Burlington Northern, of RCRA's citizen-suit standard for demonstrating that solid or hazardous waste  may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment. ( Id. at 714-16.) Oklahoma argued that it had satisfied the RCRA standard by demonstrating that an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health or the environment may be presented, and in fact is presented, by [the land application of] poultry waste. ( Id. at 717.)