Town plans to sue Muscogee Nation to stop development
Sep. 7—Residents of an Okmulgee County town incorporated decades ago to keep industrial development at bay plan to ask the court to shut down a meat processing facility — a project funded by Muscogee Nation.
The town of Winchester and five families who have homes in the "restricted residential community" sent by certified mail to Muscogee Nation and a couple dozen others a notice of their intent to file a lawsuit for alleged violations of environmental laws. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act grant the authority to file "citizens suits" to enforce environmental laws against entities that violate them and compel agencies to carry out duties for which those laws provide no discretion.
Winchester residents allege the Looped Square Meat Processing Co. built a "livestock feeding area, a meat processing plant, and wastewater treatment plant with open air lagoons" that violate "permitting requirements, standards and limitations" established by federal law. The facilities, they say, are located within a designated floodplain near a creek that hydraulically connects to groundwater wells used for drinking water and other domestic use.
Amy Thrower, an elementary school teacher, said she was "shocked" earlier this year when she looked out her window and saw heavy equipment just across the fence line preparing to build aerobic lagoons that will treat the plant's wastewater.
"We're all concerned — the creek, the water table, our water wells, and our cattle," Thrower said this past April while surveying the lagoons, which crowd the west fence line of her family's 40 acres and a creek that cuts through the section. "I've looked up these aerobic lagoons, and they're not ideal — they're only to be used in rural isolated areas."
A spokesman for the Muscogee Nation said the "project's design reflects" the tribe's "utmost respect for our environment and the future of all Oklahomans." Efforts to contact the tribe about the notice were unsuccessful, but tribal officials said earlier this year all decisions related to plant construction and operation "were made in coordination with the Nation's Environmental Services Office to meet all compliance and regulatory conditions."
The notice, signed by the town and its residents' lawyer, David Page, includes information about wastewater from slaughterhouses, which can contain "blood, manure, hair, fat, feathers, and bones in addition to other organic materials." Page said the facility employs an aeration system that will allow pathogens in the wastewater to be dispersed into the environment as it is sprayed into the air when the lagoons are full.
Page alleges in the notice the Muscogee Nation has filed for no state or federal permits that would be required for similarly situated facilities.
"By building and operating the Facilities, the Defendants have willfully and intentionally taken a course of action that uniformly violates the environmental and human health principles and policies of the Muscogee Nation, the United States and the state of Oklahoma intended to protect the very Muscogee Citizens they purportedly represent," Page states in the notice.
Should no action be taken within 60 days "to cure or correct" the alleged violations, the town and Winchester residents identified in the notice plan to file a federal lawsuit. The notice names the tribe, tribal councilors individually, the meat processing company, and state and federal officials.
