Article: River improves amid Big Poultry suit: ; Some suspect action spurred companies to do better policing themselves

SCRAPER, Okla. - David Overbey is no scientist, but he says a person doesn't have to be to see how much the Illinois River has improved in recent years.

Overbey, a 67-year-old retired laborer who spends his days fishing the river in the foothills of the Ozarks in eastern Oklahoma, said the water is clearer now than it was 30 or 40 years ago, and the drum and channel catfish he catches are bigger. And other locals, too, say the river is slowly beginning to heal after decades of deterioration.

Some trace the roots of the recovery to 2005, when Oklahoma brought a pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry, suggesting the threat of legal action may have spurred the companies to do ...

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