Thunderstorms occasionally swelled the creek so much that he couldnt wade across it. 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 . These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. It all started with Wilbur Tennant's dying cows. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. 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. The visit to the Grahams' farm was one of his happiest childhood memories. 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. Attached to it was a gallbladder that didnt. The other companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to Time's requests for comment. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. 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. She had spent the summer in the hollow, drinking out of Dry Run until shed started to act strangely. Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. 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. Something is the matter right there. You could poke it with a stick and leave a hole. And, based on Centers for Disease Control data, PFAS chemicals were found the blood of 98 percent of people studied. As luck would have it, the company bought 66 acres from one of their employees, Wilbur Tennant. Mr. Tennant believed early on that something coming out of the plant and landfill was poisoning the water and the animals on his farm. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The smell was odd. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The pipe flowed out of a collection pond at the low end of a landfill. 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. 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. That things about . This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. Tennant stated that . The story started in Parkersburg, West Virginia, home to about 32,000 people and about a three-hour drive due east of Cincinnati. 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. Cows that drank from the creek had been healthy. 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. 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. A thicker foam gathered in eddies, trembling like egg whites whipped into stiff peaks so high they sometimes blew off on a breeze. DuPont's own instructions specified that it was not to be flushed into surface water or sewers," according to the New York Times Magazine. Two of seven babies born to Teflon plant employees in 1981 had facial deformities similar to what 3M had found in newborn rats. 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. 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. LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection. DuPont bought 66 acres of the Tennant's farm land from Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim and his wife Della [1]. Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. wilbur tennant farm location. Bilott found studies that potentially linked PFOA with a variety of cancers, birth defects, and illnesses. It wasnt his first. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. "The innards was bright green.". He panned again: a bonfire on a grassy slope, a pyre of logs as fat as garbage cans. "Though PFOA was not classified by the government as a hazardous substance, 3M sent DuPont recommendations on how to dispose of it. The saga began for Bilott when Wilbur Tennant, a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, West Virginia, called Bilott a few months before he made partner at a white-shoe Cincinnati law firm. As a man, he had walked its banks with his wife. But the point I want to make, and make it real clear, he said, zooming in, thats the mouth of Dry Run.. The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. It kicked and thumped and wallered around there like you wouldnt believe.. But a single letter, sent by a DuPont scientist to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, began unraveling a more alarming story. His freezer had brimmed with venison, wild turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. 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. And if it weren't for one West Virginia farmer, Wilbur Tennant, we still might not know much about them. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. 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. Listen to an interview with Bilott about the chemical lawsuits on Science Friday. Robert Bilott is a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bilott is seeking class-action status in the case against several companies, including 3M and Chemours. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. He died of . Bilott also discovered that years before he sued DuPont on behalf of the Tennants, company scientists had tested the creek running through the familys pasture. Photos by Focus Features and Mike Coppola/Getty Images. See how thats all wallered down? Sure, bitters make cocktails taste great. 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 . The spleen was thinner and whiter than any spleen he had come cross. The suit, rather than seeking compensation, requests that the companies fund independent, scientific studies on the health effects of PFAS, according to Time Magazine. 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. The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Bilott had now discovered the cause in the deaths of the cattle on Tennant's farm and had called DuPont regarding this information. 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. 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. Her white hide was crusted with diarrhea, and her hip bones tented her hide. Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in . 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. When they bought half of the farm from Wilbur they began to use it for a landfill to store the toxins being . . DuPont determined that PFOA passed from pregnant employees to their fetuses. "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.". The flies hummed as loud as bees. Wilbur Tennant explained that he and his four siblings had run the cattle farm since their father abandoned them as children. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. But now it seemed they were ignoring him. His pleas for help fell on deaf ears, according to the Huffington Post's article, "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia." People who didnt know him very well called him Wilbur, but friends and family called him Earl. She had a calf over there. Bilott is back in court again. The tongue looked normal, but some of the teeth were coal black, interspersed with the white ones like piano keys. Bilott created a timeline that showed what DuPont and 3M knew about the chemicals. PFAS are ubiquitous. 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. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating, A New Biopic Reduces One of Historys Greatest Writers to a Cottagecore Emo Girl, How Steven Spielbergs Autobiographical New Movie Rewrites His Story, The Lawyer Who Became DuPonts Worst Nightmare, He knew his neighbors and his community was being poisoned, commissioned a photographer to take aerial photos. 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. 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 cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. 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.
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