wilbur tennant farm location wilbur tennant farm location

He requested all documents that DuPont had related to PFOA. In 1998, a farmer named Wilbur Earl Tennant knocked on the door of a lawyer named Robert Bi-lott on the grounds that the vegetation structure of the land he owned was impaired, the cattle he was breeding were affected and the only responsible was the factory located next to the river, ow-ning a wasteland adjacent to his property. A corporate courtroom drama typically doesn't need extensive visual effects, but "Dark Waters" had a few key moments that could not be created practically. 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. Predictably, his complaints to government went ignored. DuPont named this sight Dry Run Landfill after the creek that ran onto the Tennant farm. Bilott is seeking class-action status in the case against several companies, including 3M and Chemours. For decades it had been the backbone of 3Ms Scotchgard brand of stain-resistant products. ''Rob's letter lifted the curtain on a . 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. death of 260 cattle in West Virginia. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. The use of these cookies is strictly limited to measuring the site's audience. Yet to this day the companies deny responsibility, Bilott said in an interview. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . 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 . Tennant had a problem. Behind him, white-faced Herefords grazed in rolling meadows. In the meantime, people are drinking these chemicals every day. July 7, 1996 Washington, West Virginia. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. 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. They concluded that 'the study was valid' and that 'the observed fetal eye defects were due to C8,' according to internal DuPont documents. He couldnt quite place it. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. While the character of the hand-wringing Taft lawyer James Ross, portrayed by The Good Places William Jackson Harper, seems to have been invented, along with the scene where Ross suggests that Bilotts class-action suit might read to the public as nothing more than a shakedown of an iconic American company, Bilott did tell the New York Times that he perceived that there were some What the hell are you doing? responses within the firm. 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. New York, NY 10004. The cookie does not store any personally identifiable data. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. . The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. There is about a teacup or so full of itits a real dark yeller. 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. Earl had come to believe that its water was now poisonedwith what, he did not know. Wilbur Tennant explained that he and his four siblings had run the cattle farm since their father abandoned them as children. 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). The suit alleges negligence claiming the chemicals contaminated the state's natural resources, according to New Hampshire Public Radio. DuPont settled the Tennant case for an undisclosed amount. The company turned this land into the unlined Dry Run Landfill. And if it sounds familiar, it should. Photo illustration by Slate. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. 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. Thats very unusual. 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. He had carried a rifle as he went about the farm, always ready to shoot dinner. Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, sold DuPont a 66-acre tract of land that became part of the Dry Run Landfill. 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. On the other side of his property line, Dry Run Landfill was filling up the little valley that had once belonged to his family. Wamsley suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that can lead to rectal cancer, which, in his case it, did. 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. VigLink sets this cookie to track the user behaviour and also limit the ads displayed, in order to ensure relevant advertising. Edit your search or learn more. Next door to Tennant's farm was a landfill owned by E.I. Cookie used to remember the user's Disqus login credentials across websites that use Disqus. 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. 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. The C8 Science Study (named for DuPonts internal code for PFOA) found a probable link between the chemical and certain diseases in humans, some of which 3M and DuPont had found in animals years, if not decades, earlier. Just months before Rob Bilott made partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he received a call on his direct line from a cattle farmer. 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. 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. According to the book, DuPont had commissioned a photographer to take aerial photos of the property as part of its defense. In 2000, Bilott found notations on an internal DuPont document that referred to a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, in Dry Run Creek. Tennants Farm Pond Dam, Wood County, West Virginia. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. As one of Bilotts colleagues told the New York Times, To say that Rob Bilott is understated is an understatement. Its also true that Bilott did not have the same Ivy League pedigree of many of his colleagues at Taft, having been raised on Air Force bases across the continental United States and West Germany, and it was through these working-class connections that he was introduced to the Tennant family farm case. When he cut out the other lung, he noted dark purple splotches where they should have been fluffy and pink. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Bilott soon discovered that Dry Run Creek, the offshoot of the Ohio River that Tennant's livestock drank from, was full of C8, an industry name for perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, one of the . All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (Ammonium perfluorooctanoate or C8) wastes near the farm. The Intercept notes that the legal process "uncovered hundreds of internal communications revealing that DuPont employees for many years suspected that C8 was harmful and yet continued to use it, putting the company's workers and the people who lived near its plants at risk.". On August 31st of 2017, E. I. Dupont de Nemours Company and the Dow Chemical Company merged as part of a $130 billion merger. Wilbur Tennant. A few years after the sale, Tennant suspected DuPont had filled the landfill with more than just garbage. But that's just the start. The visit to the Grahams' farm was one of his happiest childhood memories. Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. As in the movie, these events really did lead to a large class-action suit that triggered a massive epidemiological study that, after a yearslong wait, showed there really was a probable link between PFOA and certain conditions, including high cholesterol, kidney cancer, and testicular cancer, though the movie depicts one scientist going so far as to tell Bilott that the results are irrefutable. (DuPont has continued to deny that it did anything wrong.). 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. 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.. Two weeks after he filmed the foamy water, Earl aimed the camcorder at one of his cows. How would you like for your livestock to have to drink something like that? he asked his imagined audience. From playing with computers to building networks: How the space for Black Software was made. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. Earl retired from the WV Department of Highways as an equipment operator. On the other line was Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.V. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. The olive green water had a greenish brown foam encrusting the grassy bank. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." 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 .