The smell was odd. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare . A thicker foam gathered in eddies, trembling like egg whites whipped into stiff peaks so high they sometimes blew off on a breeze. This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The underdog was a farmer whose family worked the land for generations, building it from a small operation to a thriving livelihood. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. wilbur tennant farm location . A videotape Tennant shot with a VHS camcorder shows emaciated cows with tumors on their hides. The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. Foam began appearing in a creek that meandered past the landfill before spilling into the Tennants pasture, he later testified in a court filing. Edit your search or learn more. 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 Tennant is one farmer in a community who sees DuPont as something more than an employer. (Chicago Tribune Handout). Thats why they called it Dry Run. 0 Comments Comments It wasnt just his cattle dying. Hunting had been one of Earls greatest pleasures. That looks a little bit like cancer to me.. We'll assume you're okay with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. 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. Sure, bitters make cocktails taste great. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. 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. Rob Bilott's Exposure is a real-life whodunit, a page-turning courtroom drama, a David-and-Goliath story of one man against an industrial colossus and a shocking expos of America's utterly broken environmental policy.You should also take this book personally - because the "exposure" of the title is yours. Much like many river cities, Parkersburg's history speaks of a working class, industrial heritage, which saw companies set up shop on the shores of the Ohio River, bringing jobs and economic stability. Did they think no one would notice? 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. Location of conflict: Little Hocking, City of Belpre, Tuppers Plains, Village of Pomeroy, Lubeck Public Service District, and Mason County Public Service District: . His mothers grandfather had bought this land, and it was the only home he had ever known. However, the company didn't tell employees or regulators and ended the study, the Huffington Post reports. Attorney Rob Bilott discusses the Fight Forever Chemicals campaign on Nov. 19, 2019. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." The first thing Im gonna do is cut this head open, check these teeth.. a series of Camcorder videos showing "soapy froth" in a creek running through DuPont's landfill property and into Tennant's farm. The other companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to Time's requests for comment. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. 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). Next door to Tennant's farm was a landfill owned by E.I. 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. Earl retired from the WV Department of Highways as an equipment operator. 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. At fifty-four, Earl was an . Then, in 1998 Bilott received a phone call from Wilbur Tennant who lived on his farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia. DuPont immediately removed all female workers from areas where they might come into contact with the chemical.". May 15, 2009; Location: Washington, West Virginia; Tribute & Message From The Family. Similarly, Bilotts boss, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), is not on the record as ever having threatened to cut Bilotts balls off and feed them to DuPont himself if his subordinate were to ever again unilaterally send internal documents found via discovery to a federal regulatory agency or speak on his findings to Congress. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. . Eight years later 3M paused one of its animal studies after every monkey fed PFOS died. 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. The Tennants had sold some of their property to DuPont years earlier. Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. 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. Bilott, with begrudging support of his firm (Tim Robbins plays his boss), confirms Wilbur's worst fears: the local DuPont plant has been dumping toxic waste on land next to the Tennant farm. PFOA is part of a larger class of PFAS chemicals. The spleen was thinner and whiter than any spleen he had come cross. Its head was tipped back at an awkward angle. One tooth had an abscess so large he reckoned he could stick an ice pick clear under it. Thats very unusual. Thats whats so scary about these chemicals, said Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University who studies PFAS. C8 and other long-chain per-fluorinated chemicals are used in a myriad of household, industrial, and commercial products. DuPont's own instructions specified that it was not to be flushed into surface water or sewers," according to the New York Times Magazine. In less than two years he had lost at least one hundred calves and more than fifty cows. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. So, the couple sold about 60 acres to DuPont. 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. As a boy, he had cooled his bare feet in this creek. 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. 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. 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. He died of . Taking on the case of Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp in the film), a West Virginian farmer whose land is contaminated from toxic run-off dumped near his premises by DuPont Company, Bilott (Ruffalo) quickly encounters the gargantuan machine of corporate disinformation, negligence, cover-up, and strong-arm tactics that allow the company to . (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post). For example, New Hampshire sued 3M and DuPont, along with a handful of companies that make firefighting foam containing PFAS. 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. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call). How would you like for your livestock to have to drink something like that? he asked his imagined audience. Call him, they suggested. In the spring, he would run and catch the calves so his daughters could pet them. For decades it had been the backbone of 3Ms Scotchgard brand of stain-resistant products. Nearly 70,000 people participated. This time he is seeking to force 3M and DuPont to pay for medical monitoring of every American exposed to PFAS. He walked there every day to count heads and check fences. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . There also are related substances called precursors that transform into PFOA and PFOS in the body or the environment. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. The Messed Up True Story Behind Dark Waters, Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia. But now it seemed they were ignoring him. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. His cattle were dying inexplicably, and in droves. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. . They just turn their back and walk on, he told the camera. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. 1: The Farm. Tennant recounted to anyone who would listen that he'd lost about 100 calves and 50 cows over the years. Her white hide was crusted with diarrhea, and her hip bones tented her hide. 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. 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. Over the decades they steadily acquired land and cattle, until 200 cows roamed more than 600 hilly acres. The cattle farmer stood at the edge of a creek that cut through a sun-dappled hollow. Tennant's farm is close to a newly DuPont-owned landfill. DuPont and the family settled the lawsuit soon after Bilott shared that information with one of the companys lawyers, who had referred to PFOA in an email as the material 3M sells us that we poop into the river and into drinking water.. Jim still calls it "the home place," although its windows are now boarded up and the outhouse is crumbling into the field. But his first big meeting is interrupted by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp, outstanding), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.Va., the rural town where Bilott's grandmother lives and where he used to . Standing walleyed in an open field was a polled Hereford red with a white face and floppy ears. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPont. The muscle looked fine, but a thin, yellow liquid gathered in the cavity where it once beat. A few years after the sale, Tennant suspected DuPont had filled the landfill with more than just garbage. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". He had formerly worked for the Wood County Schools as a bus. The unlikely hero was an Ohio-based corporate defense lawyer paid to protect chemical companies, just like the one the farmer suspected of foul play.