EDITORIAL: Well, well: AG's water warning dines on speculation

The Daily Oklahoman  |  February 17, 2009

Feb. 17, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Turns out the state had the wrong agency try to find what caused a deadly E. coli outbreak in northeastern Oklahoma last year. The Health Department wasn't the place to turn. It was the attorney general's office.

The Health Department searched for the offending bacteria strain after one man died and more than 300 people got sick from eating at a restaurant in Locust Grove. In allowing the restaurant to reopen in November, the department said that "despite testing numerous surfaces within the restaurant, various food items, stool specimens from food handlers and well water specimens, no specimen yielded the E. coli O111 bacteria."

Attorney General Drew Edmondson also put his environmental protection unit on the job. Investigators found that the restaurant's well is contaminated by poultry waste and various bacteria, including E. coli, and thus "it is possible" the well and its contaminated groundwater were the source of the outbreak.

It's an interesting finding, one that no doubt makes the Health Department uneasy because its investigation continues. Also interesting -- coincidental? -- is that Edmondson is fighting the poultry industry in federal court over how disposal of chicken litter affects the watershed. We support that effort, but this revelation smacks of litigating in public.

Edmondson, who has his sights on the governor's office, said it would be "dereliction of duty" not to warn the public of the findings. Maybe so, although it's understandable why a poultry representative, noting that the Health Department investigation is ongoing, called Edmondson's claim something else: "simply irresponsible."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0148-31869044