Democratic candidate for Attorney General blames Scott Pruitt and Mike Hunter for pollution in eastern Oklahoma

The Democratic candidate for Oklahoma Attorney General is accusing former Attorney General Scott Pruitt and current AG Mike Hunter of poisoning the people of eastern Oklahoma by allowing poultry giants to pollute the Illinois River.

In a statement this week, Mark Myles, an Oklahoma City attorney said the corruption that is poisoning the land, air, water and people of eastern Oklahoma came at the hands of both former Attorney General Scott Pruitt and current AG Mike Hunter.

” Pruitt allowed Arkansas poultry giants to pollute the Illinois River, and his successor, Mike Hunter, picked by Governor Fallin herself, has also failed to take a stand against the disasters that are devastating the lives of Oklahomans in the area. Unsurprisingly, Pruitt received campaign contributions from these poultry companies as well,” stated the release.

“Lake Tenkiller and the Illinois River are environmental disasters because of Pruitt’s corruption and Hunter is doing nothing about it,” Myles claimed. “Pruitt’s corrupt leadership both here in Oklahoma and in Washington D.C. has been well-documented in the media. Hunter is continuing in his footsteps in putting special interest over public interest. Oklahomans need a deserve a public servant that will serve and protect the public, not corporations,” Myles continued.

Since 2015, the number of chickens in licensed Poultry Feeding Operations in Oklahoma has gone up by nearly 60 percent, to nearly 60 million chickens in 2018, which has resulted in poultry feathers, dust, chemicals, feed, carcasses, and excrement penetrating the ground, poisoning the water, and making the air unbreathable. It is also causing property value to plummet, affecting the financial assets and monetary livelihood of Oklahomans that live close to these farms. Speaker Charles McCall recently appointed lawyer Josh West (R-Grove), who has accepted at least $11,000 in campaign donations from large poultry companies, and who works for Simmons, one of the largest poultry operations in Arkansas, to examine the growth of farms in the area. “The continuation of this flagrant corruption only ends with Oklahomans’ lives and their land being ruined. We deserve leadership that will guarantee our children clean air to breathe and pure water to drink,” Myles stated.

Countless children have been poisoned from zinc and lead mining in Picher, resulting in neurological issues, genetic deformities, and learning disabilities. “I will not stand by idly as history repeats itself and watch more children be poisoned at the hands of a corrupt attorney general who refuses to put people over profits,” Myles stated. “Without transparency and accountability for corporations, we leave both our natural resources and our people vulnerable to illness, disease, shortened life spans on barren lands.” Myles continued. “Under my direction, the office of the attorney general will redouble its efforts to work with all of the stakeholders to reduce the threats to our resources and protect our people and our children.”

Myles is an independent attorney who practices administrative, criminal, family, and civil law in Oklahoma City. Mark’s experience in the courtroom as both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, a critical requirement for the office of attorney general, surpasses that of Hunter, who has never tried a jury case.

Myles is licensed to practice before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the United States Court of International Trade, the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States District Courts for the Western, Northern, and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma.