The other companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to Time's requests for comment. 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. He panned the camera a few degrees. Bilott did marry a fellow lawyer, Sarah Barlage, who left her career defending corporations against workers compensation claims to raise their sons. Wilbur Tennant shot this video on his property in the 1990's. Tennant was a farmer who sold part of his land in Parkersburg, West Virginia, to DuPont, for what the company had assured him would be a non-hazardous landfill. The herd that had once been nearly three hundred head had dwindled to just about half that. It begs the question: How many cancers and other health effects are we willing to accept?, Read the investigation: Tribune finds more than 8 million Illinoisans get drinking water from a utility where forever chemicals have been detected >>>. VigLink sets this cookie to track the user behaviour and also limit the ads displayed, in order to ensure relevant advertising. SiteLock sets this cookie to provide cloud-based website security services. DuPonts lawyers had a different perspective on the incident, however, writing in an email, It is a federal offense to threaten violence against an aircraft carrying passengers and Please be advised that the helicopter pilot has indicated that he will pursue todays incident with federal authorities.. 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. There is about a teacup or so full of itits a real dark yeller. Wilbur Tennant. In 1973 she [took] him to the cattle farm belonging to the Tennants' neighbors, the Grahams, with whom White was friendly. ''Rob's letter lifted the curtain on a . He was certain that DuPont was fouling the waters that his cattle drank, and he'd already lost more than half of his herd to bizarre illnesses. This cookie is used for load balancing purposes. Like the movie, Richs article portrays Bilott as an unassuming and understated man driven by an innate sense of decency. Ken Wamsley spent nearly 40 years working at DuPont Washington Works plant, and some of that time, he measured levels of the chemical C8 (PFOA). 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. 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. 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. It is cut from the same cloth as movies like 'Erin Brockovich' and 'A Civil Action'. A load balancing cookie set to ensure requests by a client are sent to the same origin server. 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. "As soon as you cut the skin loose, you get some of the foulest smells you've ever smelled," Jim Tennant told the Huffington Post. In the 1980s, Jim Tennant and his wife, Della, got an offer from DuPont. 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.). Around here, that economic engine was DuPont, known for innovations like nylon, Tyvek, and Teflon. Azure sets this cookie for routing production traffic by specifying the production slot. When DuPont settled that lawsuit in 2004, the company agreed to finance a study of PFOAs health effects. The cows grazed on a mixed pasture of white Dutch clover, bluegrass, fescue, red clover . He knew his neighbors and his community was being poisoned, Bilott told the Post. Joseph and Darlene Kiger in Park City, Utah, in 2018. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Babies are born every day with these chemicals. Now, he was feeding them twice as much and watching them waste away. ATSDR/CDC also notes that more studies need to be done in the area of health effects, particularly on shorter-chain substances. Tennant and his brother Jim wanted to get to the bottom of it, so they dissected some carcasses. The films portrayal of the physical toll that the excruciating, decadeslong legal battle against DuPont seems to have had on Bilotts health is also accurate. The problem, he thought, was not what they were eating but what they were drinking. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The cattle farmer stood at the edge of a creek that cut through a sun-dappled hollow. The campaign coincided with the release of the film "Dark Waters" starring Mark Ruffalo inspired by the true story of Bilott, who discovered a community had been dangerously exposed for decades to deadly chemicals. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. How accurately does Dark Waters depict the twists and turns of this maze? emily in paris savoir office. 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. 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. June 14, 2022. That looks a little bit like cancer to me.. "Hold on to something," Jim Tennant warned as he fired up his tractor. Bilott is currently suing several makers and users of these chemicals on behalf of all Americans with PFAS in their blood. 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. This is the hundred and seventh calf thats met this problem right here. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. 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. The symptoms shown in the movieincluding such discolorations as blackened teethare also similar to the ones that Tennant really did videotape before sending the tapes to Bilott. While DuPont did also conduct walk-throughs and physical searches of the Tennants belongings, deeply alienating some of the familys renters, the movie depicts some of Tennants evidence going mysteriously missing. The substance is stable, persistent, and very difficult to break down. He was speaking to the camcorder pressed to his eye. Wilbur Tennant shot this video in the late 1990s on his property in West Virginia. These cookies help provide anonymized information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. "Though PFOA was not classified by the government as a hazardous substance, 3M sent DuPont recommendations on how to dispose of it. It kicked and thumped and wallered around there like you wouldnt believe.. Lawyers in Parkersburg, West Virginia, turned him down when he urged them to sue DuPont, then one of areas biggest employers. (Chicago Tribune Handout). 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. Did they think he would just sit by? I noticed that in at least one of the scenes where I was portrayed. And theyre going to find out one of these days that somebodys tired of it.. Did they think no one would notice? 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. It smelled rotten. 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. Her eyes were sunk deep in her head. DuPont's scientists understood that the landfill drained into the Tennants' remaining property, and they tested the water in Dry Run Creek. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Tennant didnt live to witness the scope of what unfolded after he persuaded Bilott to file the lawsuit about his dead cows. About 600 are in use today, according to the EPA. This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites. . Wilbur Earl Tennant and his siblings took over the land when their father abandoned them in the 1950s, according to the Huffington Post. Anne Hathaway as Sarah Bilott and the real-life Sarah Bilott. 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. 30 Broad Street, Suite 801 The film seems to imply that the fire might have been an arson attempt that hit the wrong house, though it doesnt suggest who might have lit it. Her white hide was crusted with diarrhea, and her hip bones tented her hide. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. C8 is a "surfactant," a chemical compound that reduces surface tension. And if it weren't for one West Virginia farmer, Wilbur Tennant, we still might not know much about them. 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. 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. I dont ever remember seeing that in there before., He cut out the heart and sliced it open. Their innards smelled funny and were sometimes riddled with what looked to him like tumors. The farmers name was Wilbur Earl Tennant. 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. 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. As a man, he had walked its banks with his wife. DuPont responds with a study of the Tennant farm conducted with the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A) that .
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