Drummond Defends $31M Illinois River Watershed Settlements

Drummond acts to defend Illinois River Watershed settlements

Tweet PRINT Email Tuesday, April 07, 2026 OKLAHOMA CITY (April 7, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond today called on a federal court to quickly accept the hard-fought settlements totaling more than $31 million to clean up poultry litter pollution in the Illinois River Watershed. Every day without a ruling, he warned, risks unraveling agreements that took months of good-faith negotiations to reach.

The proposed settlements with Cargill, George's, Peterson Farms and Tyson are uncontested, but the district court has yet to approve them or issue any ruling. Without such a ruling, the terms of the settlement are not in effect yet.

“Cargill, George's, Peterson Farms and Tyson did the right thing. They came to the table and worked hard to reach agreements that will deliver real remediation to the Illinois River Watershed. The court owes it to the people of Oklahoma to approve these agreements without delay,” said Drummond. "The door to a fair and reasonable settlement remains open to the hold-out defendants, Simmons and Cal-Maine, as well. Their co-defendants found a path forward. They should too.”

To protect the settlements, Drummond filed in two federal courts today. In the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, the State filed a notice urging the court to act on the pending settlements. In the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the State filed an opposition to a motion by the settling defendants that could, if granted broadly, allow Simmons and Cal-Maine to pause their own obligations in the case.

Drummond also put the district court on notice that if the settling defendants' motion results in any relief for Simmons and Cal-Maine, Oklahoma will have no choice but to withdraw all pending settlements entirely. Should that happen, all defendants – including those who negotiated in good faith – would be forced back into full, active litigation.

The State of Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods litigation was originally filed in 2005 to address decades of phosphorus runoff from poultry litter that has polluted the Illinois River Watershed. In December 2025, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell issued a final judgment finding all defendants jointly liable and ordering a 30-year court-supervised remediation program.

Read the notice filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma Read the response filed in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Last Modified on Apr 07, 2026