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. Other testing by 3M found the compounds in apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. His hand shook as he pressed the zoom button, zeroing in on a stagnant pool. In the flames, a calf lay broadside, burning. Robert Bilott isn't done. In March, a federal judge limited the case to Ohio residents with a specific amount of the chemicals in their blood, which alone could include up to 11 million people. Tennants Farm Pond Dam, Wood County, West Virginia. He requested all documents that DuPont had related to PFOA. "Hold on to something," Jim Tennant warned as he fired up his tractor. VigLink sets this cookie to track the user behaviour and also limit the ads displayed, in order to ensure relevant advertising. Initial data showed evidence that it did. I fed her at least a gallon of grain a day. The stream looked like many other streams that flowed through his sprawling farm. "If that's what it takes to get people the information they need and to protect people, we're willing to do it.". 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 . In the 1990s Wilbur began to notice weird deformities in his cows and some of them were even dying. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post). 3M and DuPont have argued in court and in public statements that neither chemical is harmful to people at typical levels of exposure. . She had a calf over there. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. 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. 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 . Its something I have never run into before., He reached back into the cow and pulled out a liver that looked about right. DuPont appeared to be concerned enough about PFOA that the company tested employees at the Teflon plant and found the chemical in their blood, the letter to the EPA revealed. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. As Bilott recollected in a panel discussion with the Washington Post, it was Wilburs obstinate refusal to simply take his monetary settlement and walk away that compelled Bilott to keep pursuing new legal avenues to hold DuPont to account. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. The flies hummed as loud as bees. Wamsley suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that can lead to rectal cancer, which, in his case it, did. People who didn't know him very well called him Wilbur, but friends and family called him Earl. 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.". Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection. Wilbur Earl Tennant. Birds sang through the white-hot humidity as he panned the camcorder across the creek. June 14, 2022. Attorney Rob Bilott discusses the Fight Forever Chemicals campaign on Nov. 19, 2019. They concluded that 'the study was valid' and that 'the observed fetal eye defects were due to C8,' according to internal DuPont documents. Then one autumn day in 2000, local schoolteacher Joe Kiger . 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. Azure sets this cookie for routing production traffic by specifying the production slot. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. After contacting the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, he felt stonewalled. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Then, in 1998 Bilott received a phone call from Wilbur Tennant who lived on his farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The cattle farmer stood at the edge of a creek that cut through a sun-dappled hollow. apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. 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. . 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. The West Virginia-based . During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. LinkedIn sets this cookie for LinkedIn Ads ID syncing. It was different from the regular dead-cow smells he had dealt with all his life. Sometimes it ran so dry hed find them glittering dead in the mud. This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. And, based on Centers for Disease Control data, PFAS chemicals were found the blood of 98 percent of people studied. In his research, Bilott had come across a DuPont letter that referred to a chemical known as . Tennant is convinced that a landfill operated by the DuPont company upstream from his farm is the cause of the continuing maladies suffered by his cattle and his family. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. They just turn their back and walk on. LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID. Wilbur Tennant had become desperate. A key component of Teflon was C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). They had seven cows then. 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. DuPont's statement said the film "depict[s] wholly imagined events," calling implications of a cover up "inaccurate," and claimed that it "grossly misrepresents" what happened. Tennant's farm is close to a newly DuPont-owned landfill. DuPont did not tell this to the Tennants at the time." Wilbur Earl Tennant was a cattle farmer in Parkersburg, Virginia, who was known to his family and friends as Earl. 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. 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. The US House of Representatives passed a bill in January 2020 that would require the EPA to deem per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) hazardous and establish a national drinking water standard. All Public Member Trees results for Wilbur Tennant. But friends knew the grandson of one of their neighbors had become an environmental lawyer in Cincinnati. And, like many Grisham novels, it's a tale worthy of the big screen. 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. Tennant didnt live to witness the scope of what unfolded after he persuaded Bilott to file the lawsuit about his dead cows. LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting. The chemical companies are appealing the decision. 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. In the spring, he would run and catch the calves so his daughters could pet them. Wilbur Tennant is one farmer in a community who sees DuPont as something more than an employer. Created by Bluecadet. Its dumping pits were unlined, designed for the disposal of nonhazardous wasteoffice paper and everyday trash. 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 goal of the merger was to combine two businesses that dabbled in . The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. . Not even buzzards and scavengers would eat them. 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. Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. Michael Hawthorne is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune. As a linchpin bolstering Dark Waters case as a message movie, the events depicted on the Tennant cattle farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia, really ought to be accurate, and for the most part, they are. Tennant is convinced that a landfill operated by the DuPont company upstream from his farm is the cause of the continuing maladies suffered by his cattle and his family. Next door to Tennant's farm was a landfill owned by E.I. In less than two years he had lost at least one hundred calves and more than fifty cows. Did they think he would just sit by? Wilbur Tennants 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 familys 600-some-acre property in the 1980s. The visit to the Grahams' farm was one of his happiest childhood memories. He started the legal process in 1999 against DuPont by filing motions compelling it to turn over documents pertaining to hazardous materials used at the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg. 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. If Wilbur Earl Tennants cows hadnt died from a mysterious wasting disease during the 1990s, the world might have never learned about the secret history of toxic forever chemicals. 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. He was 7 years old. Once this came to light, reports indicate, the Tennants settled their lawsuit against DuPont in August 2000, but the fight wasn't over. It kicked and thumped and wallered around there like you wouldnt believe.. The problem, he thought, was not what they were eating but what they were drinking. 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. Location of conflict: Little Hocking, City of Belpre, Tuppers Plains, Village of Pomeroy, Lubeck Public Service District, and Mason County Public Service District: . In real life as in the film, Bilotts earliest professional experiences after law school were working on behalf of chemical companies for his employer, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, providing the firms corporate clients with guidance on how best to comply with the so-called Superfund law passed by Congress in 1980 to regulate sites tainted with hazardous substances. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. DuPont later paid more than $750 million to settle lawsuits filed by Teflon plant neighbors with PFOA-linked diseases, including testicular and kidney cancer, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease and pregnancy-induced hypertension. It dont do you any good to go to the DNR about it. Standing walleyed in an open field was a polled Hereford red with a white face and floppy ears. 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. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. Photo illustration by Slate. When the cattle on Wilbur Earl Tennant's farm began to mysteriously fall ill and die, he suspected it wasn't what the animals were eatingit was what they were drinking. These emerging contaminants linger, breaking down only when incinerated at very high temperatures. The same year, DuPont found that water in one local district contained PFOA levels at three times that figure. One person can't always cause a change, but one person can set off a chain of reactions to cause change. 30 Broad Street, Suite 801 The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application. Tennant wants to sue chemical giant . Over the course of that lawsuit, Bilott discovered that DuPont had been using a chemical called PFOA in the production of Teflon for decades, while quietly studying its effects on lab animals and factory workers. See how thats all wallered down? . He especially enjoyed hunting, working in the garden and around the farm with his grandson Josh and . Used by Yahoo to provide ads, content or analytics. When they bought half of the farm from Wilbur they began to use it for a landfill to store the toxins being . It wasnt just his cattle dying. 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. And I burn them all. The first thing Im gonna do is cut this head open, check these teeth.. He focuses on the froth-covered creek before the tape cuts to a dissected calf with blackened teeth and oddly colored organs. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." It all started with Wilbur Tennant's dying cows. Dry Run used to flow gin clear. The farm would have stretched even longer if one of Wilbur Tennant's brothers, Jim, did not sell 66 acres to the DuPont company in the early 1980's for a landfill they were going to create for their factory. The calf was engulfed in a black, humming mist. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. By the 1980s, DuPont had allegedly begun dumping PFOA waste into the Dry Creek Landfill, near the Tennant property. DuPont's scientists understood that the landfill drained into the Tennants' remaining property, and they tested the water in Dry Run Creek. A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant's farm. These included a polluted river . Born: March 6, 1942 . 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. Something was killing cattle on his West Virginia farm, but no one wanted to help him prove that frothy, green-colored water coming from a neighboring property . Sometimes the cattle watered at a spring-fed bathtub trough at the farthest end of the field, but mostly they drank from Dry Run. wilbur tennant farm location . Tennants Farm Pond Dam is a cultural feature (dam) in Wood County. "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.". 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. Company officials told one of Tennants brothers in person and in writing they planned to turn it into a landfill for office garbage nothing hazardous. In 1998, corporate lawyer Robert Bilott ( Mark Ruffalo) is approached by Wilbur Tennant ( Bill Camp) a farmer from his hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Twitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting. Listen to an interview with Bilott about the chemical lawsuits on Science Friday. The carcasses lay where they fell. Babies are born every day with these chemicals. Jim still calls it "the home place," although its windows are now boarded up and the outhouse is crumbling into the field.