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. Leadership Lessons From Rob Bilott's 20 Year Battle For - Forbes Wamsley suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that can lead to rectal cancer, which, in his case it, did. The primary coordinates for Tennants Farm Pond Dam places it within the WV 26184 ZIP Code delivery area. 'Dark Waters' is slated to release on November 22, 2019, and has Mark Ruffalo playing the role of a tenacious attorney, who takes the fight to a big chemical company. 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. Thats where theyre supposed to come down here and pull water samples, to see whats in that water. He pointed the camera at a stagnant pool of water flanked by knee-high grass. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. PDF Extraordinary Struggle of A Lawyer- Billion Dollar "P.f.o.a." Cases And Im gonna cut her open and find out what caused her to die. During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. Its dumping pits were unlined, designed for the disposal of nonhazardous wasteoffice paper and everyday trash. Thats very unusual. He sliced open the chest cavity, pulled out a lung, and turned the camera back on. 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. Ill do something about it.. The cookie does not store any personally identifiable data. He zoomed in. DuPont established a presence along the Ohio River in 1948 with the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg. It contained an extraordinarily high concentration of PFOA. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. Birds sang through the white-hot humidity as he panned the camcorder across the creek. wilbur tennant farm location - HAZ Rental Center Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. 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. 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. On August 31st of 2017, E. I. Dupont de Nemours Company and the Dow Chemical Company merged as part of a $130 billion merger. And the man who started it all, Wilbur Tennant, won't see that resolution. Drawing Parallels between the Dupont Chemical accident and The Westlake (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call). Home. Bilott is seeking class-action status in the case against several companies, including 3M and Chemours. The farm spread roughly 600 acres, and had a total of 200 cattle roaming around. It was different from the regular dead-cow smells he had dealt with all his life. 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. Maybe if he filmed it, they could see for themselves and realize he was not just some crazy old farmer. 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. Tennants Farm Pond Dam (in Wood County, WV) - HomeTownLocator 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. These cookies do not allow the tracking of navigation on other websites and the data collected is not combined or shared with third parties. The flies hummed as loud as bees. The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare 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 . The True Story of 'Dark Waters': How Accurate are the Characters? - The Earl retired from the WV Department of Highways as an equipment operator. 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. . Earl had come to believe that its water was now poisonedwith what, he did not know. Bill Pullman was portraying me, and hes taller and younger, and everyone appeared to be drinking. How Accurate Is Dark Waters? - Looper.com 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. 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. Mark Ruffalo says story behind 'Dark Waters' exposes 'one of the Robert Bilott - Wikipedia 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. 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. DuPont named this sight Dry Run Landfill after the creek that ran onto the Tennant farm. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." He had formerly worked for the Wood County Schools as a bus. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. He didnt believe it anymore. The suit alleges negligence claiming the chemicals contaminated the state's natural resources, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. We lurched down a rutted dirt road past the old clapboard farmhouse where he grew up. But now it seemed they were ignoring him. (Chicago Tribune Handout). 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. 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. The first thing Im gonna do is cut this head open, check these teeth.. Flies. . Dry spells shrank it to a necklace of pools that winked with silver minnows. As luck would have it, the company bought 66 acres from one of their employees, Wilbur Tennant. Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday. Science Friday is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Bilotts law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, typically represents corporate clients like DuPont in environmental cases, not people like Tennant. On paper, Rob Bilott didnt appear to be one of those crusading lawyers in legal thrillers. In 1981 , 3M found that ingestion of . DuPont Defends the Teflon Toxin in Court - The Intercept November 25, 2019 12:03 PM EST. No one would help him. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. 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 edge in his voice was anger. The other companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to Time's requests for comment. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare . Earl pulled on white gloves and pried open the cows mouth, probing her gums and teeth. "The innards was bright green.". DuPont initially refused, but a court order ultimately forced them to turn over what amounted to more than 100,000 pages, some dating back 50 years. Yet to this day the companies deny responsibility, Bilott said in an interview. A thicker foam gathered in eddies, trembling like egg whites whipped into stiff peaks so high they sometimes blew off on a breeze. . Tennants Farm Pond Dam is a cultural feature (dam) in Wood County. DuPont's response was they would settle with the Tennant's however Bilott was . 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.. 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. wilbur tennant farm location . 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. Lawyers in Parkersburg, West Virginia, turned him down when he urged them to sue DuPont, then one of areas biggest employers. When their attorney, Robert Bilott of Cincinnati, asked the EPA to order DuPont to stop using C8, the company sought a restraining . DuPont C8 Contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia and Ohio, USA These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. For example, New Hampshire sued 3M and DuPont, along with a handful of companies that make firefighting foam containing PFAS. W. Earl Tennant Wilbur Earl Tennant, 67 of New England passed away suddenly at his residence May 15, 2009. . Dark Waters True Story: What The Movie Gets Right & Changes - ScreenRant He owned 200 cows that grazed on 600 acres. ATSDR/CDC also notes that more studies need to be done in the area of health effects, particularly on shorter-chain substances. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. This cow died about twenty, thirty minutes ago, Earl said. Sure, bitters make cocktails taste great. Tennant recounted to anyone who would listen that he'd lost about 100 calves and 50 cows over the years. 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. "In 1991, DuPont scientists determined an internal safety limit for PFOA concentration in drinking water: one part per billion. I fed her at least a gallon of grain a day. Washington, West Virginia. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. 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. It dont do you any good to go to the DNR about it. He was an excellent marksman, and his family had always had enough meat to eat. In 1998, cattle farmer Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, West Virginia, contacted Bilott and claimed that his livestock was dying because the runoff from a DuPont landfill had contaminated a creek on . When he cut out the other lung, he noted dark purple splotches where they should have been fluffy and pink. Dry Run used to flow gin clear. Edit your search or learn more. As Bilott details in Exposure, the April 23, 2001, incident was eventually confirmed between his legal team and DuPonts. Standing walleyed in an open field was a polled Hereford red with a white face and floppy ears. Because I was feeding her enough feed that she shoulda gained weight instead of losing weight. He focuses on the froth-covered creek before the tape cuts to a dissected calf with blackened teeth and oddly colored organs. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . "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.". 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. Thank you for helping us continue making science fun for everyone. Alternatives for PFOA and PFOS promoted as safe by industry are just as dangerous, if not more so, scientists are finding. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Wilbur Tennant - Ancestry.com Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in . Farmer uncovers company's dark secret after cows kept dying: 'An Mr. Tennant believed early on that something coming out of the plant and landfill was poisoning the water and the animals on his farm. Two of seven babies born to Teflon plant employees in 1981 had facial deformities similar to what 3M had found in newborn rats. DuPonts lawyers had a different perspective on the incident, however, writing in an email, It is a federal offense to threaten violence against an aircraft carrying passengers and Please be advised that the helicopter pilot has indicated that he will pursue todays incident with federal authorities.. His mothers grandfather had bought this land, and it was the only home he had ever known. Did they think he would just sit by? But that's just the start. Dozens began dramatically losing weight, dying even after Tennant doubled their feed on the advice of veterinarians who couldnt determine what was killing the animals. Dead cows with mysterious bloody noses and green organs - The Sun Black smoke curled into the daylight. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. With no one from the government or even local veterinarians willing to do it, Earl decided to do an autopsy himself. DuPont bought C8 from 3M and used it to prevent Teflon from clumping during the manufacturing process. Is DuPont Still In Business? (Updated 2023) - The Cold Wire You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The substance is stable, persistent, and very difficult to break down. In 2005, DuPont agreed to phase out its use of C8 (PFOA) by 2015, according to The Intercept. June 14, 2022. Wilbur Earl Tennant, 67 of New England passed away suddenly at his residence May 15, 2009. 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. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. They had seven cows then. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. 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. 0 Comments Comments Fluoride Action Network | Class Action - Part 1 As a father, he had watched his little girls splash around in its shallow ripples. In 2005, the company agreed to fund studies on the health effects of C8. 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. That looks a little bit like cancer to me.. "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. The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare - Brutal Proof The accidental activist - Bookanista Yes, DuPont is still in business, although it has struggled slightly to survive independently from time to time due to its poor public reputation. In 1970, a company that purchased 3Ms PFOS-based firefighting foam abruptly halted a demonstration after it killed fish in a nearby stream. DuPont and 3M kept the U.S. EPA in the dark for years, company and government records show. 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. . Photo illustration by Slate. On the other line was Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.V. A videotape Tennant shot with a VHS camcorder shows emaciated cows with tumors on their hides. Nor was it on the list of substances regulated by the EPA. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson . That calf had died miserable. He died of cancer in 2009. He died of cancer in 2009; he was 67. Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, sold DuPont a 66-acre tract of land that became part of the Dry Run Landfill. 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. What's Fact and What's Fiction in Dark Waters - Slate Magazine The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The pipe flowed out of a collection pond at the low end of a landfill. 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. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post) If Wilbur Earl Tennant's cows hadn't died from a mysterious wasting disease during the . It is cut from the same cloth as movies like 'Erin Brockovich' and 'A Civil Action'. 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?" The chemical companies are appealing the decision. Thats why they called it Dry Run. 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. Even down near the tips of it. 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. Something is the matter right there. The calf was engulfed in a black, humming mist. Thats the largest gall I ever saw in my life! The suit, rather than seeking compensation, requests that the companies fund independent, scientific studies on the health effects of PFAS, according to Time Magazine. Tennant Farm, December 1999, from DuPont Cattle Team Report. 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 . Maps, Driving Directions & Local Area Information The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare - Muckraker Farm There also are related substances called precursors that transform into PFOA and PFOS in the body or the environment. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The True Story Behind Dark Waters, Explained - The Cinemaholic Human Needs Before Profits: Rob Bilott v. DuPont - Blogger Dark Waters: Inspired By Courage - Dark Blue Journal This is the hundred and seventh calf thats met this problem right here. Did they think no one would notice? DuPont's Sinister Brainchild - The Origin* Some states aren't waiting for the feds to act, taking steps to hasten a response to "forever chemicals" through mitigation and regulation, and some of those steps include court action. 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. He had carried a rifle as he went about the farm, always ready to shoot dinner. Wilbur Earl Tennant. Born: March 6, 1942 . May 15, 2009; Location: Washington, West Virginia; Tribute & Message From The Family. Bilott did marry a fellow lawyer, Sarah Barlage, who left her career defending corporations against workers compensation claims to raise their sons. In time, the connection between the Tennants and DuPont would run as deep as the Ohio River. Not even buzzards and scavengers would eat them. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont. In less than two years he had lost at least one hundred calves and more than fifty cows. 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. Tennants Farm Pond Dam, Wood County, 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 . The Case Against DuPont - Type Investigations In the meantime, people are drinking these chemicals every day. There is something wrong with this water, Tennant says on the videotape. Sue Bailey was pregnant when she worked in the Teflon division of the plant. The June 23, 2000, letter listed something in the landfill that didnt appear in the other documents or in Tafts chemical dictionaries. In 1973 she [took] him to the cattle farm belonging to the Tennants' neighbors, the Grahams, with whom White was friendly. Bilott created a timeline that showed what DuPont and 3M knew about the chemicals. Parkersburg is also home to the Tennant family, who, for nearly a century, have worked land that eventually grew to 700-plus acres and raised more than 200 head of cattle. Nothing jumped out in page after page he reviewed, Bilott recalled. Wilbur Tennant is on Facebook. 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. Sloan Science & Film But you just give me time. The smell was odd. Cows that drank from the creek had been healthy. He hardly ever saw minnows swimming in the creek anymore, except the ones that floated belly up. I dont recall him drinking, Deitzler says. 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. He especially enjoyed hunting, working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson Josh and . 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.". Turns out his grandmother lived in the same town as the farmer and that's the connection that brought the underdog and the hero together. Dark Waters (2019 film) - Wikipedia The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPontNot Yet Rated. During the years before DuPont settled the lawsuit paying the Tennants an undisclosed amount without assigning blame for the dead cows the company sent Bilott boxes of documents he requested through the normal court process. The True Story Behind Dark Waters Affects You - Refinery29 Tennant had a problem. Records obtained by Bilott showed DuPont had determined in 1961 that PFOA is toxic in animals. A farmer's cows suddenly start dying off. Wilbur Tennant's family farm was located next to a "non-hazardous" landfill operated by the chemical company. Two weeks after he filmed the foamy water, Earl aimed the camcorder at one of his cows. death of 260 cattle in West Virginia - Fluoride Action Network However, the company didn't tell employees or regulators and ended the study, the Huffington Post reports. July 7, 1996 Washington, West Virginia. Wilbur Tennant is one farmer in a community who sees DuPont as something more than an employer. 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.). His pleas for help fell on deaf ears, according to the Huffington Post's article, "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia." 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. With Sue Bailey, Bucky Bailey, Ken Wamsley, Wilbur Tennant. Bilott is back in court again. He died of a heart attack in 2009 at age 67. Thing was, time was running out. 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. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. They would nuzzle him as he scratched their heads. Just months before Rob Bilott made partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he received a call on his direct line from a cattle farmer. Bryan Schutmaat for The New York Times. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant.