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Group sues poultry farm

By Greg Purvis
The Times-Journal

Published January 17, 2007

Allegations of chicken waste and runoff from a poultry farm will bring the city of Mentone and a local farm back to court in March.

A group of Mentone residents are involved in a lawsuit against a chicken farm, alleging the defendants are building and operating poultry houses, which cause debris to “run across the lands of the plaintiffs and enter into the pristine natural resource that is the west fork of Little River.”

DeKalb County Circuit Court Judge Randall Cole said the case will resume on March 20 but he said he doesn’t expect to rule on the case at that time.

The defendants are listed as Mentone residents Larry Gray, Gary Gray, and Patsy Gray, as well as their businesses: Larry Gray Farms, Gray Farm, and P.J.’s Poultry Playhouse. The city of Mentone is named as a co-defendant.

The plaintiffs are Barbara Goodwin, as executor of the estate of Helen Frazier; Joseph Allen Lowman Jr. and Heather Nicely, as trustee of the Harrison family trust.

The Gray’s operate a number of chicken houses in the Mentone area, which adds to the $256 million industry in Alabama.

The original complaint alleges the runoff generates 500 tons of chicken waste annually. While the complaint states that poultry farming is a “vital component of Alabama agriculture, and a necessary component of America’s food industry,” it also alleges that the farms in question are in violation of the law. The complaint charges if chicken farms are not operated within the law, significant threats to humans, as well as the environment, can result.

The lawsuit defines its express purpose of stopping the Grays “from trespassing or causing trespass across the plaintiff’s lands,” and to save Little River and to “preserve the future of the city of Mentone.”

The original complaint lists several specific counts relating to the plaintiffs’ lawsuit. The first defines the alleged trespassing as allowing dirt and sludge to be deposited on the plaintiff’s property due to the construction of chicken houses by the defendants. The second count is an alleged violation of a Mentone zoning ordinance. According to the complaint, the defendants are operating high-density poultry houses, which are not low-density agriculture and are therefore allegedly in violation of the applicable zoning ordinances.

Larry Gray nor his attorney wished to comment on the case.

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