wilbur tennant farm location
Teflon came into prominence in the 1940s, and with it came DuPont's rise as a chemical giant. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Its dumping pits were unlined, designed for the disposal of nonhazardous wasteoffice paper and everyday trash. As he does in the film, the real Bilott did begin to experience strange symptoms in 2010 similar to the strokelike transient ischemic attack seen in the movie. Thing was, time was running out. Thats very unusual. And the money came in handy, too, since Jim, a Washington Works employee, had for years suffered from flu-like symptoms and illnesses that baffled doctors, as outlined in a Delaware Online article from 2016. You could poke it with a stick and leave a hole. The underdog was a farmer whose family worked the land for generations, building it from a small operation to a thriving livelihood. Some of the more surprising moments in the film were in fact real and confirmed by Bilott in his memoir about the case, like when the farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), who brought the case to . DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. 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. These "forever chemicals" are an emerging global health and environmental issue. Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. Sue Bailey was pregnant when she worked in the Teflon division of the plant. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. But friends knew the grandson of one of their neighbors had become an environmental lawyer in Cincinnati. So, the couple sold about 60 acres to DuPont. 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. This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions. The symptoms shown in the movieincluding such discolorations as blackened teethare also similar to the ones that Tennant really did videotape before sending the tapes to Bilott. In November 2019, the Washington Post hosted a podcast with Mark Ruffalo and Robert Bilott to discuss the film and the lawsuit. The cattle farmer stood at the edge of a creek that cut through a sun-dappled hollow. He owned 200 cows that grazed on 600 acres. This cookie is used for storing country code selected from country selector. Not even buzzards and scavengers would eat them. Dark Waters tells the true story of American farmer Wilbur Tennant who calls on lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) to help him sue a chemical company Credit: Focus Features. He didnt believe it anymore. Records obtained by Bilott showed DuPont had determined in 1961 that PFOA is toxic in animals. Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in rolling meadows. "PFASs are extremely persistent in the environment primarily because the chemical bond between the carbon and fluorine atoms is extremely strong and stable," according to the Environmental Protection Agency. I dont understand them great big dark red places across there. In 1999, a farm farmily sued DuPont for the death of their cattle and the ill health of exposed family and farm workers. He wasnt an expert, but the disease seemed clear enough that he bagged the physical evidence and left it in his freezer for the day he could get someone with credentials interested enough to take a look. On the other line was Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.V. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. The spleen was thinner and whiter than any spleen he had come cross. When their attorney, Robert Bilott of Cincinnati, asked the EPA to order DuPont to stop using C8, the company sought a restraining . Tennant recounted to anyone who would listen that he'd lost about 100 calves and 50 cows over the years. Bilott did marry a fellow lawyer, Sarah Barlage, who left her career defending corporations against workers compensation claims to raise their sons. The farmers name was Wilbur Earl Tennant. . Attorney Rob Bilott discusses the Fight Forever Chemicals campaign on Nov. 19, 2019. There is about a teacup or so full of itits a real dark yeller. Alternatives for PFOA and PFOS promoted as safe by industry are just as dangerous, if not more so, scientists are finding. And, like many Grisham novels, it's a tale worthy of the big screen. At 72, Jim is so slight that he nearly . Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in . The company turned this land into the unlined Dry Run Landfill. 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." Sometimes the cattle watered at a spring-fed bathtub trough at the farthest end of the field, but mostly they drank from Dry Run. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". "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. DuPont appeared to be concerned enough about PFOA that the company tested employees at the Teflon plant and found the chemical in their blood, the letter to the EPA revealed. "Mysterious wasting disease" and. Bilott later determined it was one of the forever chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid, commonly referred to today as PFOA. His pleas for help fell on deaf ears, according to the Huffington Post's article, "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia." The film seems to imply that the fire might have been an arson attempt that hit the wrong house, though it doesnt suggest who might have lit it. "Though PFOA was not classified by the government as a hazardous substance, 3M sent DuPont recommendations on how to dispose of it. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Wilbur Earl Tennant was a cattle farmer in Parkersburg, Virginia, who was known to his family and friends as Earl. Just because there really is something in the water doesnt mean you cant also be paranoid. . People who didnt know him very well called him Wilbur, but friends and family called him Earl. A videotape Tennant shot with a VHS camcorder shows emaciated cows with tumors on their hides. Taking on the case of Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp in the film), a West Virginian farmer whose land is contaminated from toxic run-off dumped near his premises by DuPont Company, Bilott (Ruffalo) quickly encounters the gargantuan machine of corporate disinformation, negligence, cover-up, and strong-arm tactics that allow the company to . He zoomed out and panned over to an industrial pipe spewing froth into the creek. In real life as in the film, Bilotts earliest professional experiences after law school were working on behalf of chemical companies for his employer, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, providing the firms corporate clients with guidance on how best to comply with the so-called Superfund law passed by Congress in 1980 to regulate sites tainted with hazardous substances. A few years after the sale, Tennant suspected DuPont had filled the landfill with more than just garbage. They just turn their back and walk on, he told the camera. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPontNot Yet Rated. 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. The same year, the EPA fined DuPont more than $10 million for "failing to report 'substantial risk of injury to human health' from C8 (PFOA)," according to The Intercept. Like the movie, Richs article portrays Bilott as an unassuming and understated man driven by an innate sense of decency. 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. 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. LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting. 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. "I've been dealing with this for . July 7, 1996 Washington, West Virginia. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. The farmer's name was Wilbur Earl Tennant. 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. Dry Run was less than a miles walk from the home place, across Lee Creek, through an open field, and along a pair of tire tracks. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. It's the messy, real story behind Focus Features' Dark Waters movie, starring Mark Ruffalo as Robert Bilott, the corporate lawyer turned environmental activist who led an epic legal fight against chemical titan DuPont. They're in virtually everything we use, including stain-resistant fabric and carpets, nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, and firefighting foam. (He later would be played by actor Mark Ruffalo in the 2019 film Dark Waters.). 30 Broad Street, Suite 801 Anyone could see that something was terribly wrong, not only with the landfill itself but with the agencies responsible for monitoring it. Wilbur Tennant's 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 family's 600-some . Bilott's grandmother had lived close by, and as a child he had spent a summer on a neighbouring farm, where family members recalled that Bilott had grown up to become an environmental lawyer, and put his name forward to the Tennants. The films portrayal of the physical toll that the excruciating, decadeslong legal battle against DuPont seems to have had on Bilotts health is also accurate. Black smoke curled into the daylight. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant's farm. No one would help him. Per the article, "In March 1981, DuPont sent a pathologist and a birth defects expert to review the 3M data Bailey had read about in the locker room. Tennant Farm, December 1999, from DuPont Cattle Team Report. It was to be incinerated or sent to chemical-waste facilities. The substance is stable, persistent, and very difficult to break down. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. Photos by Focus Features and EPK. It contained an extraordinarily high concentration of PFOA. The Devil We Know: Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, Jeremy Seifert. Now it looked like dirty dishwater. With no one from the government or even local veterinarians willing to do it, Earl decided to do an autopsy himself. Bryan Schutmaat for The New York Times. 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. It is a chemical used in the manufacturing process of Teflon. Much like many river cities, Parkersburg's history speaks of a working class, industrial heritage, which saw companies set up shop on the shores of the Ohio River, bringing jobs and economic stability. 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. With Sue Bailey, Bucky Bailey, Ken Wamsley, Wilbur Tennant. Bilott, whose story was chronicled in an engrossing and detailed 2016 New York Times story by Nathaniel Rich, goes from a 1999 lawsuit on behalf of Tennant to a 2001 class action involving several . Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. Over the decades they steadily acquired land and cattle, until 200 cows roamed more than 600 hilly acres. 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. The sometimes contentious tenor of Bilotts relationship with Wilbur Tennant is also true to life. ATSDR/CDC also notes that more studies need to be done in the area of health effects, particularly on shorter-chain substances. Just months before Rob Bilott made partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he received a call on his direct line from a cattle farmer. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. PFOA and PFOS are among more than 9,000 versions of synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. By the 1980s, DuPont had allegedly begun dumping PFOA waste into the Dry Creek Landfill, near the Tennant property. But you just give me time. It is cut from the same cloth as movies like 'Erin Brockovich' and 'A Civil Action'. For decades it had been the backbone of 3Ms Scotchgard brand of stain-resistant products. He was speaking to the camcorder pressed to his eye. DuPont also discovered that pollution containing PFOA vented from the Washington Works plant affected the surrounding area, allegedly contaminating the local water supply, according to the New York Times Magazine. The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. In his research, Bilott had come across a DuPont letter that referred to a chemical known as . The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. 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. He suspected one of his town's largest employers was up to no good, allegedly dumping chemicals and contaminating his farm's water supply, and the result was hundreds of sickened and dead cattle. And in 2017, according to Reuters, DuPont and its spinoff, Chemours, agreed to pay more than $600 million to settle about 3,500 personal injury resulting from the alleged contamination of local water supplies in Parkersburg. The Messed Up True Story Behind Dark Waters, Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. A thicker foam gathered in eddies, trembling like egg whites whipped into stiff peaks so high they sometimes blew off on a breeze. He focuses on the froth-covered creek before the tape cuts to a dissected calf with blackened teeth and oddly colored organs. (Ammonium perfluorooctanoate or C8) wastes near the farm. Theres been fifty-six cows thats been burnt just like this.. Deitzler suggests it would have been a historic first for no partners at a firm of Tafts size and corporate client base to express qualms about a class-action suit of this kind. It does not store any personal data. Lawyers in Parkersburg, West Virginia, turned him down when he urged them to sue DuPont, then one of areas biggest employers. Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile. He made for an imposing figure at six feet tall, lean and broad shouldered, his . Bilott helped companies comply with new environmental regulations established by the Superfund legislation and became an expert at the chemistry of pollutants, according to the New York Times Magazine. A key component of Teflon was C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). According to the book, DuPont had commissioned a photographer to take aerial photos of the property as part of its defense. When he cut out the other lung, he noted dark purple splotches where they should have been fluffy and pink. And, based on Centers for Disease Control data, PFAS chemicals were found the blood of 98 percent of people studied. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont. Thats whats so scary about these chemicals, said Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University who studies PFAS. His name is Wilbur Tennant. Photo illustration by Slate. Foam began appearing in a creek that meandered past the landfill before spilling into the Tennants pasture, he later testified in a court filing. are linked to DuPont's landfilling of PFOA. The campaign coincided with the release of the film "Dark Waters" starring Mark Ruffalo inspired by the true story of Bilott, who discovered a community had been dangerously exposed for decades to deadly chemicals. A farmer's cows suddenly start dying off. 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. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Wilbur Tennant. According to the New York Times Magazine, "By 1990, DuPont had dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA sludge into Dry Run Landfill. This cookie is native to PHP applications. He was 7 years old. They were green like the foamy water that ran out of a pipe from the nearby Dry Run Landfill and into the creek from which the Tennant cattle drank. PFOA (C8) and PFOS were the long-chain, more commonly used substances in a larger group of more than 4,000 man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Earl pulled on white gloves and pried open the cows mouth, probing her gums and teeth. Excerpt from Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. He often walked through the woods shirtless and shoeless, his trousers rolled up, and he moved with an agile strength built by a lifetime of doing things like lifting calves over fences. His hand shook as he pressed the zoom button, zeroing in on a stagnant pool. Even down near the tips of it. A load balancing cookie set to ensure requests by a client are sent to the same origin server. His earlier efforts had all revealed unpleasant surprises: tumors, abnormal organs, unnatural smells. . He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg that is more than 35 times the size of the Pentagon, was responsible. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. Isnt that lovely?. Their quest for justice wound its way through the American judicial system for nearly two decades, unearthing long-hidden deeds which, some reports say, are akin to those perpetrated by big tobacco on the public. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. This is the hundred and seventh calf thats met this problem right here. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. Photos by Focus Features and Mike Coppola/Getty Images. 'Dark Waters' is an upcoming American legal thriller helmed by Todd Haynes. As company scientists noted in internal documents, Nine out of ten people in the highest-dosed group were noticeably ill for an average of nine hours with flu-like symptoms that included chills, backache, fever, and coughing.. Ill do something about it.. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. He had stopped feeding his family venison from the deer he shot on his land. During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. PFAS are ubiquitous. In 2005, the company agreed to fund studies on the health effects of C8. How would you like for your livestock to have to drink something like that? he asked his imagined audience. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post) If Wilbur Earl Tennant's cows hadn't died from a mysterious wasting disease during the . Washington, West Virginia. Still, in other scenes, such as when Bilott falsely suspects his car might be rigged with an explosive, its made clear that the events of the film are leading some of its characters to fear things that arent really there. But a single letter, sent by a DuPont scientist to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, began unraveling a more alarming story. "If that's what it takes to get people the information they need and to protect people, we're willing to do it.". It wasnt his first. . In 1998, a farmer named Wilbur Earl Tennant knocked on the door of a lawyer named Robert Bi-lott on the grounds that the vegetation structure of the land he owned was impaired, the cattle he was breeding were affected and the only responsible was the factory located next to the river, ow-ning a wasteland adjacent to his property. Thunderstorms occasionally swelled the creek so much that he couldnt wade across it. In May 2015, a consortium of scientists across many disciplines released a document called the Madrid Statement. June 14, 2022. 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. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Created by Bluecadet. There also are related substances called precursors that transform into PFOA and PFOS in the body or the environment. Among the files, many mentions of the chemical PFOA, also known as C8, a slippery surfactant, that was first produced by DuPont in 1938, appeared. It dont do you any good to go to the DNR about it. He had carried a rifle as he went about the farm, always ready to shoot dinner. However, the company didn't tell employees or regulators and ended the study, the Huffington Post reports. He walked there every day to count heads and check fences. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The edge in his voice was anger. Editors note: In 1999, Robert Bilott sued E.I. 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. Bilott had now discovered the cause in the deaths of the cattle on Tennant's farm and had called DuPont regarding this information. He panned again: a bonfire on a grassy slope, a pyre of logs as fat as garbage cans. Despite internal debate, it declined to make the information public," the magazinenotes. Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. 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. Two of seven babies born to Teflon plant employees in 1981 had facial deformities similar to what 3M had found in newborn rats. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Wilbur Tennant and his wife, Sandra, won a legal settlement from DuPont two years ago after they accused the company of sickening their family and killing their cattle by dumping C8 into a landfill near their farm. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. 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. The cows grazed on a mixed pasture of white Dutch clover, bluegrass, fescue, red clover . Tennant told him that DuPont had bought land from his family that was adjacent to his farm, for what the company had assured him would be a non-hazardous landfill, according to a letter Bilott later filed with the Environmental Protection Agency.
