Kriss Marion Statement

10/19/2020 Abbreviated statement from the Kriss Marion campaign regarding Todd Novak being awarded by the Wisconsin Water Alliance:

WWA is a group formed to protect polluters. Two of the board members are currently in lawsuits or under investigation for harming their neighbors by polluting private wells around their operations. One recently paid $80,000 in fines to pay for a government clean-up of a manure spill they allowed to go on for months in 2017, and they’ve had four spills since.

In every industry, there are terrific innovators and leaders, and there are also bad apples. Now and again, even the best producers might have an accident. But I think we can all agree that bad apples - those whose operations repeatedly pollute neighbors' water resources or continually draw down the prized lakes and streams in a community - need to be held account. WWA exists to protect polluters from being held responsible, and Todd Novak as the head of the Task Force on Clean Drinking Water did exactly that.

— Extended statement from the Kriss Marion campaign regarding Todd Novak being awarded by the Wisconsin Water Alliance:

I’m not surprised that Rep. Novak would receive a legislative award from the hyper-partisan WWA, a Republican group founded to protect polluters and prevent effective water protection legislation from moving forward in the great state of Wisconsin. It’s an organization run by Scott Walker donors and corporate polluters are no friends to clean water. Wisconsin Water Alliance is quite possibly the most cynical organization name on record, as their lobbying efforts consist of opposing limits on high capacity wells, feedlot runoff, and PFAS and phosphorus in surface and groundwater. This group is like a throw-back to pre-Nixon corporate protectionism.

What does surprise me is that the WWA would have the audacity to create these awards this year, when they currently have board members in court or under investigation for pollution violations that are dramatic and egregious.

TJ Tuls, as manager of the Emerald Sky Dairy, has been fined $80,000 for a manure spill he left unreported for months in 2017, which polluted the private wells of many neighbors. https://www.twincities.com/2020/01/17/site-of-recent-wisconsin-manure-spill-wasfined-80k-for-previous-incident/ Since that spill, his operation has been sited for four more pollution violations, including one in November 2019, that resulted in a fish kill at a trout stream. This February, St. Croix County formally asked the DNR to enforce future pollution violations at Emerald Sky in a more firm and timely manner. https://scceu.org/st-croix-county-requests-stronger-dnr-enforcement-offactory-farm-violations/

Louis Wysoki’s neighbors in Juneau and Wood Counties are currently sueing him, alleging that federal and state pollution violations at his Golden Sands Dairy persisted for over a decade and resulted in the contamination of wells for 200 households. The lawsuit was inspired by the death of a child from Blue Baby Syndrome, or nitrate poisoning. 300 people have joined the lawsuit. In some cases, the plaintiffs are asking for expenses to run a treatment system, for purchasing bottled water, or for property value damages due to contaminated water. In other cases, they are asking for compensation for the health consequences from consuming water with high nitrate levels, such as cancers and miscarriages.

This award perfectly illustrates the holes in Rep. Novak’s narrative that he is politically independent and an advocate for water protection. Not only did Novak vote 100% with party leadership in the 2019-2020 term, he was also called out as one of only four legislators to receive a “Lip Service” award from Wisconsin Conservation Voters in their 2019-2020 Legislative Scorecard. As the leader of the Speaker’s Task Force on Clean Water, WCV says he delivered absolutely nothing: "After taking hours of data and testimony, the task force came up with 13 bills, none of which addressed the root causes of pollution or were taken up by the Republican-led Senate. In short, the task force was a PR stunt with no new ideas or plans.” https://www.wrn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2019-20-CONSERVATIONSCORECARD-1.pdf The WWA has rewarded Rep. Novak with an award for doing nothing on water, which is what they want. Todd Novak says one thing about clean water policies but his actions say another.

The thirteen bills that came out of his task force prioritized corporate polluters and failed to live up to the task force's set goals. Meanwhile our communities are suffering the consequence and facing challenges that threaten their health because of contaminated drinking water.

If voters want a legislator who will fight corporate interests to make sure regular citizens have access to clean drinking water and fishable, swimmable surface waters, Rep. Novak is absolutely not the right choice. I'm pleased to have received the endorsement of all of the state’s conservation groups: Sierra Club, Wisconsin Conservation Voters, and Clean Wisconsin Action Fund.

In addition, I won the 2020 Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s Whistleblower of the Year Award: "When this Lafayette County supervisor saw that local officials had drafted a resolution threatening to “prosecute” reporters who failed to print verbatim what they were told to print about a water quality report, she sounded an alarm that drew national attention and resulted in the resolution being tabled. It takes guts to stand up to one’s colleagues; Marion rose to the occasion.”

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this!