A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant's farm. Records obtained by Bilott showed DuPont had determined in 1961 that PFOA is toxic in animals. Bilott also discovered that years before he sued DuPont on behalf of the Tennants, company scientists had tested the creek running through the familys pasture. DuPont: Knowingly Poisoning the Public | Brittany Readel Shes poor as a whippoorwill. Wilbur Tennants brother Jim really was a DuPont employee plagued with a serious ailment his doctors could not diagnose, and the chemical company did buy his 66 acres of the familys 600-some-acre property in the 1980s. "Though PFOA was not classified by the government as a hazardous substance, 3M sent DuPont recommendations on how to dispose of it. . LinkedIn sets this cookie to store performed actions on the website. The Tennants were initially reluctant, especially because of its intended use, but DuPont promised it would house only nonhazardous waste, like scrap metal and ash, according to the Huffington Post. I dont recall him drinking, Deitzler says. Listen to an interview with Bilott about the chemical lawsuits on Science Friday. Attached to it was a gallbladder that didnt. The pipe flowed out of a collection pond at the low end of a landfill. DuPont immediately removed all female workers from areas where they might come into contact with the chemical.". When he noticed his cows were mysteriously dying, he filmed what was happening on the farm, and the toxic legacy of C8 - DuPont's Teflon chemical - was discovered. C8 is a "surfactant," a chemical compound that reduces surface tension. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. And Im gonna cut her open and find out what caused her to die. In 2005, the company agreed to fund studies on the health effects of C8. He requested all documents that DuPont had related to PFOA. Tennant wants to sue chemical giant . The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. wilbur tennant farm location - HAZ Rental Center Seventy years later these chemicals are in our soil, our air, in wildlife. apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Calf born dead. Earl loved his cows, and the cows loved Earl. Neither Tennant nor Bilott would accept this as the end of the case. 3M and DuPont have argued in court and in public statements that neither chemical is harmful to people at typical levels of exposure. Horrific reveal in 'Dark Waters' will stick with you | The Star DuPont C8 Contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia and Ohio, USA Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. Fluoride Action Network | Class Action - Part 1 Joseph and Darlene Kiger in Park City, Utah, in 2018. DuPont's Sinister Brainchild - The Origin* Tennant stated that . Nothing jumped out in page after page he reviewed, Bilott recalled. The Post read a statement from DuPont that reiterated the company's commitment to health and safety and protecting the environment: "Although DuPont does not make the chemicals in question, we have announced a series of commitments around our limited use of PFAS and are leading [the] industry in supporting federal legislation and science-based regulatory efforts to address these chemicals." Foam began appearing in a creek that meandered past the landfill before spilling into the Tennants pasture, he later testified in a court filing. These cookies do not allow the tracking of navigation on other websites and the data collected is not combined or shared with third parties. As a father, he had watched his little girls splash around in its shallow ripples. Dark Waters and the True Story of Lawyer Rob Bilott | Time DuPont and the family settled the lawsuit soon after Bilott shared that information with one of the companys lawyers, who had referred to PFOA in an email as the material 3M sells us that we poop into the river and into drinking water.. A load balancing cookie set to ensure requests by a client are sent to the same origin server. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. (Chicago Tribune Handout). The Burden of Truth in 'Dark Waters' - Film School Rejects The suit, rather than seeking compensation, requests that the companies fund independent, scientific studies on the health effects of PFAS, according to Time Magazine. He especially enjoyed hunting, working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson Josh and . A farmer's cows suddenly start dying off. . DuPont bought 66 acres of the Tennant's farm land from Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim and his wife Della [1]. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. Similarly, DuPonts presence in the Ohio and West Virginia Chemical Valley regions really did resemble the company town vibe portrayed in Dark Waters, with citizens frequently too enthralled by the multinationals economic benefits to question its impact on their health and safety. His hand shook as he pressed the zoom button, zeroing in on a stagnant pool. Thats Hollywood, I guess. (Bilott has not yet responded to my email and telephone inquiries about whether he has ever enjoyed a celebratory Mai Tai or any other tropical, rum-based cocktail.). Its dumping pits were unlined, designed for the disposal of nonhazardous wasteoffice paper and everyday trash. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. His mothers grandfather had bought this land, and it was the only home he had ever known. The farmer Wilbur Tennant had suspected that the chemical company DuPont was responsible for the death of many of his cows. Of Bilotts Famous Letter to the EPA, Terp told the Times that he didnt recall if there was any particular reaction internally and that the partners at Taft were proud of the work that he has done.. Even though he sold them to be finished and slaughtered for beef, he didnt have the heart to kill one himself, unless it had a broken leg and he needed to end its suffering. Tennants Farm Pond Dam, Wood County, West Virginia. Bilott, with begrudging support of his firm (Tim Robbins plays his boss), confirms Wilbur's worst fears: the local DuPont plant has been dumping toxic waste on land next to the Tennant farm. As Bilott recollected in a panel discussion with the Washington Post, it was Wilburs obstinate refusal to simply take his monetary settlement and walk away that compelled Bilott to keep pursuing new legal avenues to hold DuPont to account. Wilbur's brother, Jim, was also employed as a laborer at the Washington Works plant, along with hundreds more who found steady work at the area's largest employer. Wilbur Tennant passed away on May 15, 2009 at the age of 67 in Washington, West Virginia. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. In the 1990s Wilbur began to notice weird deformities in his cows and some of them were even dying. Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. DuPont later paid more than $750 million to settle lawsuits filed by Teflon plant neighbors with PFOA-linked diseases, including testicular and kidney cancer, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease and pregnancy-induced hypertension. DuPont named this sight Dry Run Landfill after the creek that ran onto the Tennant farm. . Thank you for helping us continue making science fun for everyone. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. It dont do you any good to go to the DNR about it. Mark Ruffalo says story behind 'Dark Waters' exposes 'one of the DuPont de Nemours & Co., used to dump chemical waste from the company's . Ken Wamsley spent nearly 40 years working at DuPont Washington Works plant, and some of that time, he measured levels of the chemical C8 (PFOA). All rights reserved. A month before DuPonts letter about PFOA, the Minnesota-based conglomerate 3M announced it would stop making a chemical with a similar sounding name: perfluorooctane sulfonic acid or PFOS. In May 2015, a consortium of scientists across many disciplines released a document called the Madrid Statement. She had spent the summer in the hollow, drinking out of Dry Run until shed started to act strangely. The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. If Wilbur Earl Tennants cows hadnt died from a mysterious wasting disease during the 1990s, the world might have never learned about the secret history of toxic forever chemicals. Bilott's connection to Parkersburg dated back to his childhood, when he spent summers there visiting his grandmother, and her friend is the one who suggested to Wilbur Tennant that he call Bilott, an environmental lawyer at Cincinnati firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, for help. According to the New York Times Magazine, "By 1990, DuPont had dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA sludge into Dry Run Landfill. "As soon as you cut the skin loose, you get some of the foulest smells you've ever smelled," Jim Tennant told the Huffington Post. Thats very unusual. . Bubbles formed as it tumbled over stones in a sudsy film. And the man who started it all, Wilbur Tennant, won't see that resolution. He panned again: a bonfire on a grassy slope, a pyre of logs as fat as garbage cans. The state vet wouldnt even come out to the farm. . All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. 'Dark Waters' Review: The Killing Fields of West Virginia Dark Waters'messed up true story reveals an emerging public health and environmental threat, the pervasiveness of "forever chemicals," and an alleged corporate cover-up. Wamsley suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that can lead to rectal cancer, which, in his case it, did. ''Rob's letter lifted the curtain on a . He knew his neighbors and his community was being poisoned, Bilott told the Post. Her white hide was crusted with diarrhea, and her hip bones tented her hide. When the cattle on Wilbur Earl Tennants farm began to mysteriously fall ill and die, he suspected it wasnt what the animals were eatingit was what they were drinking. That calf had died miserable. Deer, birds, fish and other wildlife were turning up dead in and around Dry Run. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. But two years before 3M announced its phaseout in 2000, the company informed EPA officials for the first time that PFOA and PFOS accumulate in human blood, take years to leave the body and dont break down in the environment. He was speaking to the camcorder pressed to his eye. Over the decades they steadily acquired land and cattle, until 200 cows roamed more than 600 hilly acres. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Hard labor was his birthright. He sliced open the chest cavity, pulled out a lung, and turned the camera back on. The Story of DuPont - 1 - ENVMAT Bilott created a timeline that showed what DuPont and 3M knew about the chemicals. He marked each one on a calendar, a simple slash mark for each grotesque death. She had a calf over there. Tennants Farm Pond Dam is a cultural feature (dam) in Wood County. Lawyers in Parkersburg, West Virginia, turned him down when he urged them to sue DuPont, then one of areas biggest employers. The farmhouse stood at the foot of a sloping meadow that rose into a bald knob. It was different from the regular dead-cow smells he had dealt with all his life. Yet to this day the companies deny responsibility, Bilott said in an interview. Once this came to light, reports indicate, the Tennants settled their lawsuit against DuPont in August 2000, but the fight wasn't over. "We have always and will continue to work with those in the scientific, not-for-profit and policy communities who demonstrate a serious and sincere desire to improve our health, our communities, and our planet.". Thing was, time was running out. Bilott soon discovered that Dry Run Creek, the offshoot of the Ohio River that Tennant's livestock drank from, was full of C8, an industry name for perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, one of the . When the cattle on Wilbur Earl Tennant's farm began to mysteriously fall ill and die, he suspected it wasn't what the animals were eatingit was what they were drinking. The carcass was starting to smell. Edit Search New Search Filters (1) To get better results, add more information such as Birth Info, Death Info and Locationeven a guess will help. Anyone could see that something was terribly wrong, not only with the landfill itself but with the agencies responsible for monitoring it. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. He was an excellent marksman, and his family had always had enough meat to eat. Earl pulled on white gloves and pried open the cows mouth, probing her gums and teeth. The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. In March, a federal judge limited the case to Ohio residents with a specific amount of the chemicals in their blood, which alone could include up to 11 million people. Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia Tennant is convinced that a landfill operated by the DuPont company upstream from his farm is the cause of the continuing maladies suffered by his cattle and his family. Wilbur Tennant showed Bilott alarming video footage in which his previously docile animals had turned . Revelations by another chemical company gave Bilott leverage to go back into court and request more records from DuPont. Despite internal debate, it declined to make the information public," the magazinenotes. Babies are born every day with these chemicals. It was really his dedication to bringing that out that really inspired me to try to find a way to address the bigger problem., Amazingly, the Pakula-esque paranoid thriller scene, in which Wilbur Tennant spots a low-level helicopter hovering ominously over his property, uses the scope of his hunting rifle to better examine the vehicle, and scares it off in the process, did in fact occur. "If we can't get where we need to go to protect people through our regulatory channels, through our legislative process, then unfortunately what we have left is our legal process," Bilott told Time in November 2019. The following is an excerpt of Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont by Robert Bilott and Tom Shroder. Dark Waters: Inspired By Courage - Dark Blue Journal Given the fact that the events depicted on the Tennant cattle farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia, are Dark Waters' most important evidence, the filmmakers should have treated them with the utmost authenticity - to their credit, they did for the most part.Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim really was a DuPont employee who got sick with a disease the doctors couldn't diagnose; and the chemical . In 1970, a company that purchased 3Ms PFOS-based firefighting foam abruptly halted a demonstration after it killed fish in a nearby stream. Jim still calls it "the home place," although its windows are now boarded up and the outhouse is crumbling into the field. The goal of the merger was to combine two businesses that dabbled in . This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. Bilott is back in court again. The carcasses lay where they fell. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. After the Tennants had been paid and Bilotts law firm collected its fees for representing them, he found himself coming back again and again to the piles of industry documents he had collected, urged on by the persistent Tennant. DuPont's own instructions specified that it was not to be flushed into surface water or sewers," according to the New York Times Magazine. As luck would have it, the company bought 66 acres from one of their employees, Wilbur Tennant. The stream looked like many other streams that flowed through his sprawling farm. In 1999, a farm farmily sued DuPont for the death of their cattle and the ill health of exposed family and farm workers. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. Teflon came into prominence in the 1940s, and with it came DuPont's rise as a chemical giant. Studies have found potential links between PFOA exposure and high cholesterol, thyroid disorders, and testicular and kidney cancers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Just because there really is something in the water doesnt mean you cant also be paranoid. In his memoir, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont, published earlier this year, Bilott says that doctors could only really diagnose the issue as unusual brain activity after an MRI similar to the one he undergoes in the film. Eight years later 3M paused one of its animal studies after every monkey fed PFOS died. The True Story Behind Dark Waters Affects You - Refinery29 Dark Waters True Story: What The Movie Gets Right & Changes - ScreenRant Rob Bilott vs. the (DuPont) World | by Ayu Larasati | Medium That's just some of the video footage Wilbur showed lawyer Robert Bilott, according to an excerpt from Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont on Vimeo His freezer had brimmed with venison, wild turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. In short, I was playing for the opposite team, Bilott recalled in his memoir about the lawsuit he ended up filing against DuPont and the explosive aftermath. It had paid for the 150 acres of land his great-grandfather had bought and for the two-story, four-room farmhouse pieced together from trees felled in the woods, dragged across fields, and raised by hand. On the other side of his property line, Dry Run Landfill was filling up the little valley that had once belonged to his family. Similarly, Bilotts boss, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), is not on the record as ever having threatened to cut Bilotts balls off and feed them to DuPont himself if his subordinate were to ever again unilaterally send internal documents found via discovery to a federal regulatory agency or speak on his findings to Congress. In Minnesota, 3M paid an $850 million settlement after the states attorney general used the industry documents in a lawsuit demanding clean drinking water for communities near one of its manufacturing plants outside Minneapolis. Her eyes were sunk deep in her head. DuPont, Billot, Tennant and PFOA - vanessawilliams - Suffolk University We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. He started the legal process in 1999 against DuPont by filing motions compelling it to turn over documents pertaining to hazardous materials used at the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg. You could poke it with a stick and leave a hole. It also helps in fraud preventions. It turned out 3M also made PFOA and sold it to DuPont, which used the chemical cousin of Scotchgard to keep Teflon from clumping during production. Anne Hathaway as Sarah Bilott and the real-life Sarah Bilott. As Bilott details in Exposure, the April 23, 2001, incident was eventually confirmed between his legal team and DuPonts. What's Fact and What's Fiction in Dark Waters - Slate Magazine Wilbur Tennant Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information - Legacy.com When the Grahams heard in 1998 that Wilbur Tennant was looking for legal help, they remembered Bilott, White's grandson, who had grown up to become an environmental . As in the movie, he at first had a cozy relationship with DuPont, though some of the details of the relationship in the movie are invented. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, A New Biopic Reduces One of Historys Greatest Writers to a Cottagecore Emo Girl, How Steven Spielbergs Autobiographical New Movie Rewrites His Story, The Lawyer Who Became DuPonts Worst Nightmare, He knew his neighbors and his community was being poisoned, commissioned a photographer to take aerial photos. Is DuPont Still In Business? (Updated 2023) - The Cold Wire The first thing Im gonna do is cut this head open, check these teeth.. The Taft offices are in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dry Run used to flow gin clear. LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting. In 2005, DuPont agreed to phase out its use of C8 (PFOA) by 2015, according to The Intercept. And of course, he knew all about Dry Run Landfill, a DuPont waste site near his farm that largely served the company's chemical plant near Parkersburg. Edit your search or learn more. Tennant was a West Virginia farmer whose family owned land near a DuPont factory on the Ohio River where the chemical giant made one of its signature inventions: Teflon nonstick and anti-stain coatings used in carpets, clothing, cookware and hundreds of other products. Dark Waters tells a story that in many ways is still being written, and itwill likely take years for this latest lawsuit to be resolved. The Devil We Know: Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, Jeremy Seifert. "The innards was bright green.". Location of conflict: Little Hocking, City of Belpre, Tuppers Plains, Village of Pomeroy, Lubeck Public Service District, and Mason County Public Service District: . This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. As a boy, he had cooled his bare feet in this creek. The Messed Up True Story Behind Dark Waters, Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

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