Testimony concluded on Wednesday in the Waterkeepers Alliance v. Alan and Kristin Hudson lawsuit. Both sides are to submit post-trial statements by November 14, responses are due by November 21, and closing arguments are tentatively scheduled for November 30 before District Judge William Nickerson. The judge will rule at some point after the closing arguments.
In 2010, Hudson and his wife, Kristin, were sued for violating the Clean Water Act over allegations that pollution from their chicken houses had drained into a stream that ultimately flows to the Chesapeake Bay. The suit by the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental group, and represented by the University of Maryland environmental law clinic, also named Perdue Farms, for whom the Hudsons are contract growers.
“While we are prepared for any outcome, and thank Judge Nickerson for his hard work in conducting the trial, we don’t believe the plaintiffs proved their case on any front, and we look forward to being vindicated by the judge’s ruling, ” Julie DeYoung, spokesperson for Perdue Farms, said.
“After almost three years, this case came down to the proposition that any chicken house with a door or a fan is a source of pollution and therefore likely in violation of the Clean Water Act. To make this ridiculous argument, the Waterkeeper Alliance, Assateague Coastal Trust and University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic put a farm family through hell, drove a wedge between farmers and environmentalists, and wasted taxpayer resources,” DeYoung said.
“All along we’ve said that this lawsuit threatens family farms across the country, and the trial revealed the true agenda of the groups and of the individuals involved in the case–to use trumped up pollution charges to attack poultry farms, ” said Andrew McLean, SaveFarmFamilies.org.
