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.. This time he is seeking to force 3M and DuPont to pay for medical monitoring of every American exposed to PFAS. As luck would have it, the company bought 66 acres from one of their employees, Wilbur Tennant. From playing with computers to building networks: How the space for Black Software was made. Today, that site is home to Chemours Washington Works, a spinoff of DuPont that employs more than 600 people and produces a variety of products used in construction, aerospace, and household goods. November 25, 2019 12:03 PM EST. 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. It kicked and thumped and wallered around there like you wouldnt believe.. . (Ammonium perfluorooctanoate or C8) wastes near the farm. These "forever chemicals" are an emerging global health and environmental issue. Its dumping pits were unlined, designed for the disposal of nonhazardous wasteoffice paper and everyday trash. AWSALB is an application load balancer cookie set by Amazon Web Services to map the session to the target. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. By the late 1990s, West Virginia farmer Wilbur Tennant was at his wits end. The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in . The herd that had once been nearly three hundred head had dwindled to just about half that. 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. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. 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. In May 2015, a consortium of scientists across many disciplines released a document called the Madrid Statement. 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). 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. Twitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting. The use of these cookies is strictly limited to measuring the site's audience. 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. July 7, 1996 Washington, West Virginia. Bilott tries to communicate to Tennant that he "isn't that kind of environmental lawyer," yet Tennant's exasperated resilience strikes a chord with the compassionate . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The Kiger family, teacher Joseph Kiger and his wife, Darlene, really did receive a cagey and curiously worded letter from the local Lubeck water district in October 2000 notifying them that an unregulated chemical named PFOA was present in their drinking water at low concentrations. And, as the film intimates, this letter, delivered on the public utilitys letterhead, was first reviewed by DuPont and started the clock on the statute of limitations. Much of the biographical information about the Kiger family, including Darlenes first marriage to a DuPont engineer who came home sick and called it the Teflon flu, also checks out. Nearly 70,000 people participated. Lawyers in Parkersburg, West Virginia, turned him down when he urged them to sue DuPont, then one of areas biggest employers. On the other side of his property line, Dry Run Landfill was filling up the little valley that had once belonged to his family. In April 2000, after 3M conducted tests and studies on a similar, sister chemical to C8 (PFOA) called PFOS, the company notified the Environmental Protection Agency it found that "even modest exposure could have devastating health effects" and started to phase out PFOS use, as well as PFOA, according to the Huffington Post. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. None of this information was shared with the public. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. There also are related substances called precursors that transform into PFOA and PFOS in the body or the environment. emily in paris savoir office. And, like many Grisham novels, it's a tale worthy of the big screen. The farm spread roughly 600 acres, and had a total of 200 cattle roaming around. And I burn them all. But what about the alarming moment when a fire breaks out at the home of Joseph Kigers father, who shares his name? He zoomed in. He was born at New England, a son of the late Blaine Tennant and Lydia (Wildman) Tennant. 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 later would be played by actor Mark Ruffalo in the 2019 film Dark Waters.). Where they should have been smooth, they looked ropy, covered with ridges. Wilbur Tennant showed Bilott alarming video footage in which his previously docile animals had turned . During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. The federal agency notes that it has made significant progress in addressing the public health concerns "from issuing groundwater cleanup guidance to proposing a positive regulatory determination for both PFOA and PFOS, EPA has made progress under every aspect of the Action Plan.". 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 . 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.). 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. NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads. Quite soon after DuPont establishes their landfill, weird things start happening to his cattle. Dont understand that at all. When he cut out the other lung, he noted dark purple splotches where they should have been fluffy and pink. In 1973 she [took] him to the cattle farm belonging to the Tennants' neighbors, the Grahams, with whom White was friendly. Join Facebook to connect with Wilbur Tennant and others you may know. Seventy years later these chemicals are in our soil, our air, in wildlife. The same year, DuPont found that water in one local district contained PFOA levels at three times that figure. Two of seven babies born to Teflon plant employees in 1981 had facial deformities similar to what 3M had found in newborn rats. . 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. . If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. Nor was it on the list of substances regulated by the EPA. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday. So, the couple sold about 60 acres to DuPont. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Yet to this day the companies deny responsibility, Bilott said in an interview. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. DuPont's scientists understood that the landfill drained into the Tennants' remaining property, and they tested the water in Dry Run Creek. Deer, birds, fish and other wildlife were turning up dead in and around Dry Run. Its something I have never run into before., He reached back into the cow and pulled out a liver that looked about right. "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.". . 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. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. The local employer wanted to buy some of their property for a landfill for its Washington Works plant nearby, where it produces, among other things, Teflon, which contains the chemical C8. 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. It is cut from the same cloth as movies like 'Erin Brockovich' and 'A Civil Action'. The spleen was thinner and whiter than any spleen he had come cross. Wilbur Earl Tennant, 67 of New England passed away suddenly at his residence May 15, 2009. These chemicals are most harmful when ingested and consequently bioaccumulate, meaning they build up over time in the body (just as they build up in the environment). (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post) If Wilbur Earl Tennant's cows hadn't died from a mysterious wasting disease during the . It was different from the regular dead-cow smells he had dealt with all his life. DuPont and 3M kept the U.S. EPA in the dark for years, company and government records show. Over the decades they steadily acquired land and cattle, until 200 cows roamed more than 600 hilly acres. It is based on a shocking true story, where a series . Babies are born every day with these chemicals. I could find no record of any such incident taking place. He owned 200 cows that grazed on 600 acres. It looked, at most, a few days old. That looks a little bit like cancer to me.. Photo illustration by Slate. The suit alleges negligence claiming the chemicals contaminated the state's natural resources, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. He focuses on the froth-covered creek before the tape cuts to a dissected calf with blackened teeth and oddly colored organs. Thing was, time was running out. . Photos by Focus Features and EPK. Eight years later 3M paused one of its animal studies after every monkey fed PFOS died. Did they think he would just sit by? "In 1991, DuPont scientists determined an internal safety limit for PFOA concentration in drinking water: one part per billion. The story started in Parkersburg, West Virginia, home to about 32,000 people and about a three-hour drive due east of Cincinnati. In the 1980s, Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, got an offer from DuPont. Predictably, his complaints to government went ignored. A videotape Tennant shot with a VHS camcorder shows emaciated cows with tumors on their hides. Two weeks after he filmed the foamy water, Earl aimed the camcorder at one of his cows. DuPont settled the Tennant case for an undisclosed amount. A group of citizens in West Virginia challenges a powerful corporation to be more environmentally responsible. How would you like for your livestock to have to drink something like that? he asked his imagined audience. 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. That things about . At the end of the movie, I had a revelation. This cow died about twenty, thirty minutes ago, Earl said. Tennant was a farmer who sold part of his land in Parkersburg, West Virginia, to DuPont, for Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont on Vimeo Their innards smelled funny and were sometimes riddled with what looked to him like tumors. And if it weren't for one West Virginia farmer, Wilbur Tennant, we still might not know much about them. The sometimes contentious tenor of Bilotts relationship with Wilbur Tennant is also true to life. One tooth had an abscess so large he reckoned he could stick an ice pick clear under it. 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. Maybe if he filmed it, they could see for themselves and realize he was not just some crazy old farmer. Just because there really is something in the water doesnt mean you cant also be paranoid. Black smoke curled into the daylight. Wilbur Earl Tennant. Other testing by 3M found the compounds in apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Bilott did marry a fellow lawyer, Sarah Barlage, who left her career defending corporations against workers compensation claims to raise their sons. 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 . "The innards was bright green.". 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. Then, in 1998 Bilott received a phone call from Wilbur Tennant who lived on his farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Editors note: In 1999, Robert Bilott sued E.I. Its head was tipped back at an awkward angle. riding horses, milking cows and watching Secretariat win the Triple Crown on TV. Somebodys not doing their duty, he said to the camera, to anyone who would listen. LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting. Wilbur Tennant shot this video on his property in the 1990's. Tennant was a farmer who sold part of his land in Parkersburg, West Virginia, to DuPont, for what the company had assured him would be a non-hazardous landfill. VigLink sets this cookie to show users relevant advertisements and also limit the number of adverts that are shown to them. He was an excellent marksman, and his family had always had enough meat to eat. His hand shook as he pressed the zoom button, zeroing in on a stagnant pool. Standing walleyed in an open field was a polled Hereford red with a white face and floppy ears. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Thunderstorms occasionally swelled the creek so much that he couldnt wade across it. 0 Comments Comments Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in rolling meadows. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. 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. How accurately does Dark Waters depict the twists and turns of this maze? . . Her eyes were sunk deep in her head. Wilbur Tennant. "Mysterious wasting disease" and. 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. The farm would have stretched even longer if one of Wilbur Tennant's brothers, Jim, did not sell 66 acres to the DuPont company in the early 1980's for a landfill they were going to create for their factory. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post). Calf born dead. Earl loved his cows, and the cows loved Earl. We lurched down a rutted dirt road past the old clapboard farmhouse where he grew up. 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. No one believed him when he told them about the things he saw happening to his land. But now it seemed they were ignoring him. Records obtained by Bilott showed DuPont had determined in 1961 that PFOA is toxic in animals. 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. In the 1980s, Jim and his wife, Della, would sell acreage to DuPont for use as a landfill for scrap metal, according to the New York Times Magazine. Even though the Tennant case had already settled, Bilott pushed on, building a larger case against DuPont on behalf of residents in a Parkersburg-area water district. song that goes bum bum bum 2020. wilbur tennant farm locationconservation international ceo. With Sue Bailey, Bucky Bailey, Ken Wamsley, Wilbur Tennant. 1: The Farm. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. They are still in all of us.. At least thats what his family had been told thirteen years before by the company that had bought their land. Jim still calls it "the home place," although its windows are now boarded up and the outhouse is crumbling into the field. 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Revelations by another chemical company gave Bilott leverage to go back into court and request more records from DuPont. 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. He was 7 years old. 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. 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. In less than two years he had lost at least one hundred calves and more than fifty cows. The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. In October 2018, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of a firefighter, who used fire suppression foam and equipment containing PFAS for 40 years. Hunting had been one of Earls greatest pleasures. It also helps in fraud preventions. Tennants Farm Pond Dam is a cultural feature (dam) in Wood County. The farmer Wilbur Tennant had suspected that the chemical company DuPont was responsible for the death of many of his cows. By that point, 153 animals died had died grisly deaths on his property . But you just give me time. After this sale, Tennant's cattle started to become sick and Tennant began to understand that . working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson . 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. 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. Wilbur Tennant, a cattle farmer in Parkersburg, W.Va., the site of a huge DuPont plant, had over many years gradually built up his herd. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. At fifty-four, Earl was an imposing figure, six feet tall, lean and oxshouldered, with sandpaper hands and a permanent squint. 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. 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?" Sometimes the cattle watered at a spring-fed bathtub trough at the farthest end of the field, but mostly they drank from Dry Run. Joseph and Darlene Kiger in Park City, Utah, in 2018. Earl had come to believe that its water was now poisonedwith what, he did not know. He hardly ever saw minnows swimming in the creek anymore, except the ones that floated belly up. Bilott created a timeline that showed what DuPont and 3M knew about the chemicals. Sometimes it ran so dry hed find them glittering dead in the mud. In time, the connection between the Tennants and DuPont would run as deep as the Ohio River. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Shes poor as a whippoorwill. The farmers name was Wilbur Earl Tennant. On August 31st of 2017, E. I. Dupont de Nemours Company and the Dow Chemical Company merged as part of a $130 billion merger. For example, New Hampshire sued 3M and DuPont, along with a handful of companies that make firefighting foam containing PFAS. As unbelievable as it may sound, DuPont really did, in the 1960s, offer some of its staff Teflon-laced cigarettes as a human experiment into the potential side effects of the PFOA-produced nonstick material, as the movie recounts. He couldnt quite place it. DuPont established a presence along the Ohio River in 1948 with the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg. He made for an imposing figure at six feet tall, lean and broad shouldered, his . It wasnt just his cattle dying. He died of cancer in 2009; he was 67. 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. A farmer's cows suddenly start dying off. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The calf was engulfed in a black, humming mist. Her calf, black and white, lay dead on its side in a circle of matted grass. Earl pulled on white gloves and pried open the cows mouth, probing her gums and teeth. 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). The flies hummed as loud as bees. He died of a heart attack in 2009 at age 67. 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 wasnt his first. It does not store any personal data. At 72, Jim is so slight that he nearly . But the point I want to make, and make it real clear, he said, zooming in, thats the mouth of Dry Run.. Isnt that lovely?. Theres been fifty-six cows thats been burnt just like this.. 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. 'Dark Waters' is an upcoming American legal thriller helmed by Todd Haynes. The problem, he thought, was not what they were eating but what they were drinking. When DuPont settled that lawsuit in 2004, the company agreed to finance a study of PFOAs health effects. Wilbur Tennant's family farm was located next to a "non-hazardous" landfill operated by the chemical company. When they bought half of the farm from Wilbur they began to use it for a landfill to store the toxins being . The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. But that's just the start. wilbur tennant farm location. Birds sang through the white-hot humidity as he panned the camcorder across the creek. It flowed through a corner of the three-hundred-acre farm, in a place Earl called the holler. A small valley cut between hillsides, the holler was where he moved the herd to graze throughout the summer. Now it was filled with specimens you might find in a pathology lab. He knew the folks at the DNR, because they gave him a special permit to hunt on his land out of season. He sliced open the chest cavity, pulled out a lung, and turned the camera back on. In another field, a grown cow lay dead. 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. Around here, that economic engine was DuPont, known for innovations like nylon, Tyvek, and Teflon. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. Wilbur Tennant is one farmer in a community who sees DuPont as something more than an employer. 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. Excerpt from Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. oh, two-thirds bigger than it should be., The kidneys, too, looked abnormal. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". I dont ever remember seeing that in there before., He cut out the heart and sliced it open. With no one from the government or even local veterinarians willing to do it, Earl decided to do an autopsy himself. When she returned to work at DuPont, Bailey learned about a study by 3M (the manufacturer of C8) that found similar deformities in unborn rats exposed to the chemical, according to the Huffington Post. Home. He had stopped feeding his family venison from the deer he shot on his land. It was small and ephemeral, fed by the rains that gathered in the creases of the ancient mountains that rumpled West Virginia and gave it those misty blue, almost-heaven vistas. Recently, the cows had started charging, trying to kick him and butt him with their heads, as this one had before she died. Bilott is seeking class-action status in the case against several companies, including 3M and Chemours. DuPont bought 66 acres of the Tennant's farm land from Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim and his wife Della [1]. "I've been dealing with this for . 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 . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Wilbur Earl Tennant and his siblings took over the land when their father abandoned them in the 1950s, according to the Huffington Post. PFOA and PFOS are among more than 9,000 versions of synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. In 1999, a farm farmily sued DuPont for the death of their cattle and the ill health of exposed family and farm workers. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. In the meantime, people are drinking these chemicals every day.