He died of cancer in 2009; he was 67. He sliced open the chest cavity, pulled out a lung, and turned the camera back on. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. 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 sp_t cookie 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." 1: The Farm. 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. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application. They concluded that 'the study was valid' and that 'the observed fetal eye defects were due to C8,' according to internal DuPont documents. Photos by Focus Features and EPK. Trial lawyer Harry Deitzler, whos played by Bill Pullman in the film, told Slate in a telephone interview that while Dark Waters captured Bilotts sense of commitment and general modesty, it was less accurate in its depiction on one particular issue: Robert Bilott has not been known to be an especially big fan of Mai Tais, either in general or on special occasions. While DuPont did also conduct walk-throughs and physical searches of the Tennants belongings, deeply alienating some of the familys renters, the movie depicts some of Tennants evidence going mysteriously missing. The flies hummed as loud as bees. How accurately does Dark Waters depict the twists and turns of this maze? The West Virginia-based . 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. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. For example, the DuPont executive played by Victor Garber, Phil Donnelly, seems to be a composite, and the scene where he turns on Bilott, hissing at him, Fuck you, hick, appears to be invented. Photo illustration by Slate. At the end of the movie, I had a revelation. 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 . 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. But friends knew the grandson of one of their neighbors had become an environmental lawyer in Cincinnati. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Other testing by 3M found the compounds in apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Standing walleyed in an open field was a polled Hereford red with a white face and floppy ears. Tennant had a problem. a series of Camcorder videos showing "soapy froth" in a creek running through DuPont's landfill property and into Tennant's farm. Edit your search or learn more. After this sale, Tennant's cattle started to become sick and Tennant began to understand that . 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 Messed Up True Story Behind Dark Waters, Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. But you just give me time. C8 and other long-chain per-fluorinated chemicals are used in a myriad of household, industrial, and commercial products. "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. . Michael Hawthorne is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune. LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection. Thats very unusual. Bilott is seeking class-action status in the case against several companies, including 3M and Chemours. Thats the water right there, underneath that foam, the farmer said. The substance is stable, persistent, and very difficult to break down. It contained an extraordinarily high concentration of PFOA. They're in virtually everything we use, including stain-resistant fabric and carpets, nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, and firefighting foam. DuPont did not tell this to the Tennants at the time." Despite internal debate, it declined to make the information public," the magazinenotes. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. And if it sounds familiar, it should. just a dukes mix of everything. Until lately, the cattle always fattened up nicely on that, plus the corn he grew to finish them and a grain mix he bought from the feed store. The EPA on its own only recently started to take steps to study, monitor, and regulate the use of PFAS and released an update to its action plan programin February 2020. He had formerly worked for the Wood County Schools as a bus. In October 2018, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of a firefighter, who used fire suppression foam and equipment containing PFAS for 40 years. In his research, Bilott had come across a DuPont letter that referred to a chemical known as . Bilott is back in court again. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". are linked to DuPont's landfilling of PFOA. It's a story straight out of a legal thriller penned by John Grisham, though instead of the Deep South, this one takes place in Appalachia. Science Friday is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He panned the camera a few degrees. The problem, he thought, was not what they were eating but what they were drinking. A few years after the sale, Tennant suspected DuPont had filled the landfill with more than just garbage. A key component of Teflon was C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The farmer's name was Wilbur Earl Tennant. They just turn their back and walk on, he told the camera. Two weeks after he filmed the foamy water, Earl aimed the camcorder at one of his cows. Listen to an interview with Bilott about the chemical lawsuits on Science Friday. Records obtained by Bilott showed DuPont had determined in 1961 that PFOA is toxic in animals. The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. He was an excellent marksman, and his family had always had enough meat to eat. Even down near the tips of it. Yes, the household name used as a cookware coating agent that is advertised to make food not stick and is known for its durability in . Their innards smelled funny and were sometimes riddled with what looked to him like tumors. Wilbur Tennant and his family had recently sold part of their farmland to a company and had no idea what would end up coming of it. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. As one of Bilotts colleagues told the New York Times, To say that Rob Bilott is understated is an understatement. Its also true that Bilott did not have the same Ivy League pedigree of many of his colleagues at Taft, having been raised on Air Force bases across the continental United States and West Germany, and it was through these working-class connections that he was introduced to the Tennant family farm case. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Washington, West Virginia. wilbur tennant farm location. Photo illustration by Slate. His earlier efforts had all revealed unpleasant surprises: tumors, abnormal organs, unnatural smells. That looks a little bit like cancer to me.. Sue Bailey was pregnant when she worked in the Teflon division of the plant. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. After contacting the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, he felt stonewalled. In the 1990s Wilbur began to notice weird deformities in his cows and some of them were even dying. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. While the character of the hand-wringing Taft lawyer James Ross, portrayed by The Good Places William Jackson Harper, seems to have been invented, along with the scene where Ross suggests that Bilotts class-action suit might read to the public as nothing more than a shakedown of an iconic American company, Bilott did tell the New York Times that he perceived that there were some What the hell are you doing? responses within the firm. 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. A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. They had seven cows then. It wasnt his first. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It kicked and thumped and wallered around there like you wouldnt believe.. Nor was it on the list of substances regulated by the EPA. DuPont's statement said the film "depict[s] wholly imagined events," calling implications of a cover up "inaccurate," and claimed that it "grossly misrepresents" what happened. DuPont immediately removed all female workers from areas where they might come into contact with the chemical.". YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. It also helps in fraud preventions. This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. Thunderstorms occasionally swelled the creek so much that he couldnt wade across it. DuPont de Nemours & Co., used to dump chemical waste from the company's . The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, sold DuPont a 66-acre tract of land that became part of the Dry Run Landfill. Wilbur Earl Tennant, 67 of New England passed away suddenly at his residence May 15, 2009. C8 is a "surfactant," a chemical compound that reduces surface tension. The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. So, the couple sold about 60 acres to DuPont. I dont ever remember seeing that in there before., He cut out the heart and sliced it open. We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Dark Waters is a 2019 American legal thriller film directed by Todd Haynes and written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan.The story dramatizes Robert Bilott's case against the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont after they contaminated a town with unregulated chemicals. 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.. 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. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. During the course of the litigation, we have confirmed that the chemicals and pollutants released into the environment by DuPont may pose an imminent and substantial threat to health and the environment, Bilott wrote at the beginning of his March 6, 2001, letter. Bubbles formed as it tumbled over stones in a sudsy film. Thats the largest gall I ever saw in my life! 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. Thing was, time was running out. A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant's farm. He focuses on the froth-covered creek before the tape cuts to a dissected calf with blackened teeth and oddly colored organs. Flies. It smelled rotten. 1998: Wilbur Tennant contacts Taft's and Hollisters' (Taft) lawyer, Robert Billot, to assist in his case against DuPont for dumping chemical waste into the river that his cows drink from, causing them severe health problems. He couldnt quite place it. Its something I have never run into before., He reached back into the cow and pulled out a liver that looked about right. It was to be incinerated or sent to chemical-waste facilities. The primary coordinates for Tennants Farm Pond Dam places it within the WV 26184 ZIP Code delivery area. The June 23, 2000, letter listed something in the landfill that didnt appear in the other documents or in Tafts chemical dictionaries. And it takes immense courage and conviction to do that. DuPont's response was they would settle with the Tennant's however Bilott was . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Earl retired from the WV Department of Highways as an equipment operator. In 2005, DuPont agreed to phase out its use of C8 (PFOA) by 2015, according to The Intercept. He walked there every day to count heads and check fences. 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. Tennant Farm, December 1999, from DuPont Cattle Team Report. Tennant didnt live to witness the scope of what unfolded after he persuaded Bilott to file the lawsuit about his dead cows. Bilotts law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, typically represents corporate clients like DuPont in environmental cases, not people like Tennant. 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. Thank you for helping us continue making science fun for everyone. He hardly ever saw minnows swimming in the creek anymore, except the ones that floated belly up. Alternatives for PFOA and PFOS promoted as safe by industry are just as dangerous, if not more so, scientists are finding. When DuPont settled that lawsuit in 2004, the company agreed to finance a study of PFOAs health effects. 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. This cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website. Nothing jumped out in page after page he reviewed, Bilott recalled. No one believed him when he told them about the things he saw happening to his land. . He died of a heart attack in 2009 at age 67. Over the course of that lawsuit, Bilott discovered that DuPont had been using a chemical called PFOA in the production of Teflon for decades, while quietly studying its effects on lab animals and factory workers. Shorty after that, DuPont started to medically monitor female workers at the Washington Works plant to, as the company's medical director noted, "answer a single question does C8 cause abnormal children?" He had stopped feeding his family venison from the deer he shot on his land. I dont recall him drinking, Deitzler says. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. Location of conflict: Little Hocking, City of Belpre, Tuppers Plains, Village of Pomeroy, Lubeck Public Service District, and Mason County Public Service District: . The West Virginia-based farmer was convinced a toxic river that ran into his farmland was to blame, since the animals' strange symptoms began when his brother sold some land to a chemical company to use as a landfill site a . 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. There is about a teacup or so full of itits a real dark yeller. He was certain that DuPont was fouling the waters that his cattle drank, and he'd already lost more than half of his herd to bizarre illnesses. 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). Attorney Rob Bilott discusses the Fight Forever Chemicals campaign on Nov. 19, 2019. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. "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. 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. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Wilbur Earl Tennant and his siblings took over the land when their father abandoned them in the 1950s, according to the Huffington Post. Photos by Focus Features and Mike Coppola/Getty Images. It is based on a shocking true story, where a series . A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. 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. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . . apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Up until about a decade ago, few in the public knew about C8, let alone its potential health effects, but DuPont allegedly knew its toxic effects for decades and purportedly failed to tell employees or the public, according to The Intercept. The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. Where they should have been smooth, they looked ropy, covered with ridges. We consulted a variety of sources, including Nathaniel Richs 2016 New York Times Magazine feature The Lawyer Who Became DuPonts Worst Nightmare (upon which the movie is based), Bilotts own book, other longform articles, and attorney Harry Deitzler (the personal-injury lawyer played in the movie by Bill Pullman), to help sort out whats true and whats embellished. According to the New York Times Magazine, "By 1990, DuPont had dumped 7,100 tons of PFOA sludge into Dry Run Landfill. But a single letter, sent by a DuPont scientist to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, began unraveling a more alarming story. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPontNot Yet Rated. They would nuzzle him as he scratched their heads. wilbur tennant farm location . Isnt that lovely?. 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. Theres been fifty-six cows thats been burnt just like this.. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post). 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.. When he cut out the other lung, he noted dark purple splotches where they should have been fluffy and pink. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Then he wrote a 19-page letter, attached some of the industry documents and mailed the package to officials at the EPA and the Department of Justice. 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. It dont do you any good to go to the DNR about it. 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. Maybe if he filmed it, they could see for themselves and realize he was not just some crazy old farmer. R ob Bilott, a corporate lawyer-turned-environmental crusader, doesn't much care if he's made enemies over the years. 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. 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 . . At fifty-four, Earl was an imposing figure, six feet tall, lean and oxshouldered, with sandpaper hands and a permanent squint. He marked each one on a calendar, a simple slash mark for each grotesque death. Copyright 2019 by Robert Bilott. They are everywhere. riding horses, milking cows and watching Secretariat win the Triple Crown on TV. The Tennants had sold some of their property to DuPont years earlier. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. Both companies denied any wrongdoing. Cows that drank from the creek had been healthy. Details of what DuPont allegedly knew and when came to light in pages and pages of documents, initially as part of the lawsuit Bilott filed against the company on behalf of Wilbur Tennant and then in more than 3,000 subsequent personal injury suits that have followed in the past two decades. Dont understand that at all. But that's just the start. 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. Because I was feeding her enough feed that she shoulda gained weight instead of losing weight. 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 . 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." As Bilott details in Exposure, the April 23, 2001, incident was eventually confirmed between his legal team and DuPonts. Quite soon after DuPont establishes their landfill, weird things start happening to his cattle. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Wilbur Tennant showed Bilott alarming video footage in which his previously docile animals had turned . working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson . She had spent the summer in the hollow, drinking out of Dry Run until shed started to act strangely. By the late 1990s, West Virginia farmer Wilbur Tennant was at his wits end. The use of these cookies is strictly limited to measuring the site's audience. He didnt believe it anymore. 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. DuPont and 3M kept the U.S. EPA in the dark for years, company and government records show. 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. 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. . Tennant wants to sue chemical giant . Somebodys not doing their duty, he said to the camera, to anyone who would listen. He had carried a rifle as he went about the farm, always ready to shoot dinner. It begs the question: How many cancers and other health effects are we willing to accept?, Read the investigation: Tribune finds more than 8 million Illinoisans get drinking water from a utility where forever chemicals have been detected >>>. Tennant's farm is close to a newly DuPont-owned landfill. 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. PFOA and PFOS are among more than 9,000 versions of synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. 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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Something was killing cattle on his West Virginia farm, but no one wanted to help him prove that frothy, green-colored water coming from a neighboring property . DuPont bought 66 acres of the Tennant's farm land from Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim and his wife Della [1]. DuPont responds with a study of the Tennant farm conducted with the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A) that . A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. Bilott found studies that potentially linked PFOA with a variety of cancers, birth defects, and illnesses. In 1998, corporate lawyer Robert Bilott ( Mark Ruffalo) is approached by Wilbur Tennant ( Bill Camp) a farmer from his hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. 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. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Foam began appearing in a creek that meandered past the landfill before spilling into the Tennants pasture, he later testified in a court filing. Robert Bilott isn't done. These cookies do not allow the tracking of navigation on other websites and the data collected is not combined or shared with third parties. On the other line was Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.V. It is a chemical used in the manufacturing process of Teflon. DuPont determined that PFOA passed from pregnant employees to their fetuses. "He was doing for the Tennants what he would have done for any of his corporate clients pulling permits, studying land deeds and requesting from DuPont all documentation related to Dry Run Landfill but he could find no evidence that explained what was happening to the cattle," the New York Times wrote. Todd Haynes new film Dark Waters wades into some of the most complicated topics in public health, chemistry, and the law to dramatize the story of environmental attorney Robert Bilott and his nearly two decades of civil actions against DuPont. 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.