In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. On paper, Rob Bilott didnt appear to be one of those crusading lawyers in legal thrillers. 0 Comments Comments 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. Class Action - Part 1. Photos by Focus Features and Mike Coppola/Getty Images. Tennant recounted to anyone who would listen that he'd lost about 100 calves and 50 cows over the years. 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. 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). 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?" A thicker foam gathered in eddies, trembling like egg whites whipped into stiff peaks so high they sometimes blew off on a breeze. He sliced open the chest cavity, pulled out a lung, and turned the camera back on. He zoomed in. Bilott found studies that potentially linked PFOA with a variety of cancers, birth defects, and illnesses. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. These "forever chemicals" are an emerging global health and environmental issue. But you just give me time. Listen to an interview with Bilott about the chemical lawsuits on Science Friday. wilbur tennant farm location. 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 . Photos by Focus Features and EPK. In less than two years he had lost at least one hundred calves and more than fifty cows. This cow died about twenty, thirty minutes ago, Earl said. 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. Tennant Farm, December 1999, from DuPont Cattle Team Report. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. Somebodys not doing their duty, he said to the camera, to anyone who would listen. The first thing Im gonna do is cut this head open, check these teeth.. 'Dark Waters' Review: The Killing Fields of West Virginia VigLink sets this cookie to track the user behaviour and also limit the ads displayed, in order to ensure relevant advertising. Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont. Interview: Todd Haynes on - Slant Magazine The primary coordinates for Tennants Farm Pond Dam places it within the WV 26184 ZIP Code delivery area. Wilbur Earl Tennant (1942-2009) - Find a Grave Memorial And I burn them all. 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. As luck would have it, the company bought 66 acres from one of their employees, Wilbur Tennant. Tennant didnt live to witness the scope of what unfolded after he persuaded Bilott to file the lawsuit about his dead cows. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. Did they think no one would notice? Now it was filled with specimens you might find in a pathology lab. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. 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. Her white hide was crusted with diarrhea, and her hip bones tented her hide. 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 . Black smoke curled into the daylight. 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. DuPont then really did proceed to turn that plot into a dumping ground for sludge that it knew to be toxic, going so far as to quietly conduct tests for perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in the nearby river and expressing concern for the health of the Tennants livestock in internal documents nearly a decade before they would be denying culpability and blaming the Tennants in court. That things about . The Farmer Who Took On One Of The World's Biggest Chemical Corporations Science Friday is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare Thunderstorms occasionally swelled the creek so much that he couldnt wade across it. The Non-Stick Chemical That Stuck DuPont with a Stiff Bill In The 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.. Earl pulled on white gloves and pried open the cows mouth, probing her gums and teeth. In 2005, the company agreed to fund studies on the health effects of C8. By that point, 153 animals died had died grisly deaths on his property . His cattle now drank from its pools. Where they should have been smooth, they looked ropy, covered with ridges. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. But friends knew the grandson of one of their neighbors had become an environmental lawyer in Cincinnati. Seventy years later these chemicals are in our soil, our air, in wildlife. wilbur tennant farm location 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 lawyer. He panned again: a bonfire on a grassy slope, a pyre of logs as fat as garbage cans. Other testing by 3M found the compounds in apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Robert Bilott is a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio. He knew his neighbors and his community was being poisoned, Bilott told the Post. Farmer Wilbur Earl Tennant's historic video showing mysterious cow When DuPont settled that lawsuit in 2004, the company agreed to finance a study of PFOAs health effects. The cattle farmer stood at the edge of a creek that cut through a sun-dappled hollow. Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. The West Virginia-based . The calf was engulfed in a black, humming mist. Bilott did marry a fellow lawyer, Sarah Barlage, who left her career defending corporations against workers compensation claims to raise their sons. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. 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. Anyone could see that something was terribly wrong, not only with the landfill itself but with the agencies responsible for monitoring it. This video contains graphic imagery. 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 . June 14, 2022; salem witch trials podcast lore 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. With Sue Bailey, Bucky Bailey, Ken Wamsley, Wilbur Tennant. The Burden of Truth in 'Dark Waters' - Film School Rejects DuPont, Billot, Tennant and PFOA - vanessawilliams - Suffolk University Then one autumn day in 2000, local schoolteacher Joe Kiger . Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. 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. He was 7 years old. At 72, Jim is so slight that he nearly . 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. Calf born dead. Earl loved his cows, and the cows loved Earl. He hardly ever saw minnows swimming in the creek anymore, except the ones that floated belly up. ATSDR/CDC also notes that more studies need to be done in the area of health effects, particularly on shorter-chain substances. Bubbles formed as it tumbled over stones in a sudsy film. One person can't always cause a change, but one person can set off a chain of reactions to cause change. Thing was, time was running out. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. Dark Waters: Inspired By Courage - Dark Blue Journal At fifty-four, Earl was an imposing figure, six feet tall, lean and oxshouldered, with sandpaper hands and a permanent squint. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post) If Wilbur Earl Tennant's cows hadn't died from a mysterious wasting disease during the . These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It wasnt just his cattle dying. He had formerly worked for the Wood County Schools as a bus. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. You could poke it with a stick and leave a hole. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. Wilbur Tennant. Is DuPont Still In Business? (Updated 2023) - The Cold Wire That day had never come, so he decided he would make them watch a video. 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 . He had stopped feeding his family venison from the deer he shot on his land. The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". . . The True Story Behind Dark Waters, Explained - The Cinemaholic The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont on Vimeo And if it sounds familiar, it should. 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. Wilbur Earl Tennant and his siblings took over the land when their father abandoned them in the 1950s, according to the Huffington Post. 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. He sued DuPont again on behalf of thousands of people who lived near the Teflon plant and for decades had been exposed to PFOA through drinking water and air pollution. 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. 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. Its head was tipped back at an awkward angle. Wilbur Earl Tennant and his siblings took over the land when their father abandoned them in the 1950s, according to the Huffington Post. It was to be incinerated or sent to chemical-waste facilities. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. As Bilott details in Exposure, the April 23, 2001, incident was eventually confirmed between his legal team and DuPonts. The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. Photo illustration by Slate. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. The cookie does not store any personally identifiable data. (Ammonium perfluorooctanoate or C8) wastes near the farm. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better experience for the visitors. Eight years later 3M paused one of its animal studies after every monkey fed PFOS died. Thats the largest gall I ever saw in my life! He died of cancer in 2009. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare . Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. "I've been dealing with this for . Bilott created a timeline that showed what DuPont and 3M knew about the chemicals. How Accurate Is Dark Waters? - Looper.com This cookie is native to PHP applications. I dont recall him drinking, Deitzler says. Tennant's farm is close to a newly DuPont-owned landfill. Dark Waters true story: How a lawyer exposed a chemical giant - mirror DuPont C8 Contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia and Ohio, USA GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s.