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Wilbur Tennant shot this video on his property between 1995 and 1997. Her eyes were sunk deep in her head. 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. Other testing by 3M found the compounds in apples, bread, green beans and ground beef. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida. However, the company didn't tell employees or regulators and ended the study, the Huffington Post reports. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Her son, Bucky, was born in 1981 with nose and eye deformities. 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. He died of cancer in 2009. Her calf, black and white, lay dead on its side in a circle of matted grass. The Devil We Know on iTunes - Apple 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). The PFAS and the Furious | Environmental Working Group Washington, West Virginia. death of 260 cattle in West Virginia. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare . These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Wamsley suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that can lead to rectal cancer, which, in his case it, did. Ill do something about it.. He was born at New England, a son of the late Blaine Tennant and Lydia (Wildman) Tennant. People who didnt know him very well called him Wilbur, but friends and family called him Earl. July 7, 1996 Washington, West Virginia. He died of cancer in 2009; he was 67. A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant's farm. DuPont immediately removed all female workers from areas where they might come into contact with the chemical.". 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. 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 . Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. He toldThe Intercept in 2015 that it bubbled up out of glass containers and "was everywhere." Alternatives for PFOA and PFOS promoted as safe by industry are just as dangerous, if not more so, scientists are finding. And after Bilott watched and listened, he took action. By that point, 153 animals died had died grisly deaths on his property . DuPont's own instructions specified that it was not to be flushed into surface water or sewers," according to the New York Times Magazine. Wilbur Earl Tennant (1942-2009) - Find a Grave Memorial Wilbur Tennant showed Bilott alarming video footage in which his previously docile animals had turned . This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. Because I was feeding her enough feed that she shoulda gained weight instead of losing weight. People who didn't know him very well called him Wilbur, but friends and family called him Earl. It was really his dedication to bringing that out that really inspired me to try to find a way to address the bigger problem., Amazingly, the Pakula-esque paranoid thriller scene, in which Wilbur Tennant spots a low-level helicopter hovering ominously over his property, uses the scope of his hunting rifle to better examine the vehicle, and scares it off in the process, did in fact occur. 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 . For decades it had been the backbone of 3Ms Scotchgard brand of stain-resistant products. DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Its something I have never run into before., He reached back into the cow and pulled out a liver that looked about right. 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. The cookie does not store any personally identifiable data. "The innards was bright green.". He couldnt quite place it. Did they think he would just sit by? 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. Flies. Nor was it on the list of substances regulated by the EPA. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". We lurched down a rutted dirt road past the old clapboard farmhouse where he grew up. 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. He had stopped feeding his family venison from the deer he shot on his land. Over the decades they steadily acquired land and cattle, until 200 cows roamed more than 600 hilly acres. By the late 1990s, West Virginia farmer Wilbur Tennant was at his wits end. GRAPHIC CONTENT: An excerpt from Wilbur Earl Tennant's video showing the mysterious wasting disease affecting his cows in the 1990s. They're in virtually everything we use, including stain-resistant fabric and carpets, nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, and firefighting foam. 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. Did they think no one would notice? PFAS are ubiquitous. Back in the '90s, Tennant noticed something strange was happening to his cows. 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. Home. Some of the more surprising moments in the film were in fact real and confirmed by Bilott in his memoir about the case, like when the farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), who brought the case to . His freezer had brimmed with venison, wild turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. 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 . DuPont detected PFOA in the drinking water of communities near the Teflon plant. At fifty-four, Earl was an imposing figure, six feet tall, lean and oxshouldered, with sandpaper hands and a permanent squint. During manufacturing processes, PFAS chemicals are released into the air, soil, and water around industrial facilities, the EPA reports. 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. Bilott had now discovered the cause in the deaths of the cattle on Tennant's farm and had called DuPont regarding this information. One person can't always cause a change, but one person can set off a chain of reactions to cause change. 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. Tennant told him that DuPont had bought land from his family that was adjacent to his farm, for what the company had assured him would be a non-hazardous landfill, according to a letter Bilott later filed with the Environmental Protection Agency. Sloan Science & Film "I've been dealing with this for . And, like many Grisham novels, it's a tale worthy of the big screen. Even though he sold them to be finished and slaughtered for beef, he didnt have the heart to kill one himself, unless it had a broken leg and he needed to end its suffering. Tennant didnt live to witness the scope of what unfolded after he persuaded Bilott to file the lawsuit about his dead cows. It wasnt just his cattle dying. This cow died about twenty, thirty minutes ago, Earl said. Tennant stated that . In the 1980s, Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, got an offer from DuPont. 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. a series of Camcorder videos showing "soapy froth" in a creek running through DuPont's landfill property and into Tennant's farm. 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 . . 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. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. DuPont Duplicity Causes Defendant's Lawyer To Switch Sides 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. Earl retired from the WV Department of Highways as an equipment operator. Eight years later 3M paused one of its animal studies after every monkey fed PFOS died. Attorney Rob Bilott discusses the Fight Forever Chemicals campaign on Nov. 19, 2019. The Devil We Know: Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, Jeremy Seifert. 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. W. Earl Tennant Wilbur Earl Tennant, 67 of New England passed away suddenly at his residence May 15, 2009. . When DuPont settled that lawsuit in 2004, the company agreed to finance a study of PFOAs health effects. Now it was filled with specimens you might find in a pathology lab. Dark Waters: Inspired By Courage - Dark Blue Journal Dark Waters True Story: What The Movie Gets Right & Changes - ScreenRant 'Dark Waters' Review: The Killing Fields of West Virginia Thats Hollywood, I guess. (Bilott has not yet responded to my email and telephone inquiries about whether he has ever enjoyed a celebratory Mai Tai or any other tropical, rum-based cocktail.). On the other line was Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp), a cattle farmer from Parkersburg, W.V. As company scientists noted in internal documents, Nine out of ten people in the highest-dosed group were noticeably ill for an average of nine hours with flu-like symptoms that included chills, backache, fever, and coughing.. C8 and other long-chain per-fluorinated chemicals are used in a myriad of household, industrial, and commercial products. Its just like that other calf up yonder, he said, panning over the matted grass. Wilbur Tennant - facebook.com Wilbur Tennant and his wife, Sandra, won a legal settlement from DuPont two years ago after they accused the company of sickening their family and killing their cattle by dumping C8 into a landfill near their farm. The story started in Parkersburg, West Virginia, home to about 32,000 people and about a three-hour drive due east of Cincinnati. The Teflon Toxin, Part 2: Wilbur Tennant vs. DuPontNot Yet Rated. They are everywhere. 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. In his research, Bilott had come across a DuPont letter that referred to a chemical known as . 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. But a single letter, sent by a DuPont scientist to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, began unraveling a more alarming story. In 2005, the company agreed to fund studies on the health effects of C8. His pleas for help fell on deaf ears, according to the Huffington Post's article, "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia." Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. The Non-Stick Chemical That Stuck DuPont with a Stiff Bill In The It is a chemical used in the manufacturing process of Teflon. The True Story of 'Dark Waters': How Accurate are the Characters? - The DuPont Defends the Teflon Toxin in Court - The Intercept VigLink sets this cookie to show users relevant advertisements and also limit the number of adverts that are shown to them. They would nuzzle him as he scratched their heads.