His acting career began at the age of 12 when he was given a role in the western series The There was an appeals process that could net disgruntled residents a few extra dollars. No. Its good to put a lot of thought into a process such as this, but when are we going to see some outcome? It isnt necessary for the EPA to raid TBAGs files to find this information because the agency already has the original documents in its own archives. He isnt here to argue that the Times Beach incinerator spewed poison from its smokestack. Jerry-Russell Bliss, Inc. v. Hazardous Waste Management The couples property is adjacent to the Bliss farm. During the questioning, inmate Scott Rollins, a former Bliss driver, made a stuttering confession that he had picked up waste from Monsanto in Illinois. Donna Lopers family moved to Times Beach when she was 6 months old. He edited his footage down to a two-minute video, which he argues provides vivid firsthand evidence that racism is alive and well in parts of the country. I didnt set the price, but its my fault. ), The worst thing is not knowing, Taylor says. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Feild, nevertheless, appears to have already arrived at a predetermined conclusion that those locations will be found to be free of any contamination. It was nearly a week before people could return to begin the daunting task of rebuilding. The announcement of the new site came only weeks after the EPA and DNR had completed their controversial incineration project at Although Mr. Lambarth was subpoenaed as a witness for the state, his testimony tended to support Mr. Bliss's contention that at the time he picked up the dioxin wastes, he did not know they were hazardous. During the Depression, a lot of the people in the city moved into their homes in Times Beach to ride out the hard times, Leistner says. WebJerry Bliss lives in Saint James, MO; previous cities include Ellisville MO and Ballwin MO. The kids all played together, she says, and we had birthday parties and invited all the neighbor kids. She misses being able to ride her bike to the mailbox or the store. Mennonites came in to help rebuild. Her husband, Grover Callahan, worked as a truck driver for the Bliss Waste Oil Co. in the early 1970s. Six months earlier, shed met a young man named Jerry Akers, a Marine who was home on leave. I believe that the whole area there is littered with contamination pockets, she says. Memories of the eviction are still too emotional. As much as I hated to see that happen to people, Leistner says, it was part of the contract to get the buyout going and to get all of those people out of there and in permanent homes., Still, all these years later, animosity persists. Jerry It was an overstatement, to be sure, but one rooted in factat least until the Great Depression. oklahoma public land deer hunting Accept X Bliss was the driver of the truck that unknowingly But aside from some resentment toward the park, this is a happy day. The same goes for rolling around in dioxin. It was in Illinois and it had a big fence around it. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. They didnt have anything. TBAG started its investigation because it thought there had been a coverup by state and federal authorities on the source and extent of contamination in Missouri, says Taylor. Alligator removed from South Carolina resident's garage. TBAG had opposed the project, saying it was unsafe to human health and the environment. Waste was tracked to the Verona plant. Monsanto is a big, big company. Everybody was friendly in Times Beach, she says. The concern's application was denied in early 1981, but Mr. Bliss has continued operating pending the appeal hearing that began here Monday morning. "They got rid of Agent Orange by burning it," Hedeman said of the dioxin-based herbicide used widely in Vietnam. JERRY-RUSSELL BLISS, INC She had a brand-new leather jacket that had gotten dirty in the flood. The citys nearly 2,500 residents were divided about what to do next, whether to stay or to ask for a buyout of their property through the EPAs Superfund. Only a small portion of the residents ever made it back. In addition to receiving a firm ass-whooping from his father, Copeland was sentenced to an hour in jail. By the time he answered the knock, the harried courier had already departed, leaving an unexpected Federal Express packet on his threshold. She lived there for a quarter century, until December 1982, at which point the town was thrown into what she calls the time of flood and dioxin. She has spent the past quarter century telling the Times Beach story. He faced a maximum of nine years in prison. I guess Wildwood is just going to have to look at it from a credibility standpoint, says Shea. The offers were very low, so we got organized, Leistner says. In Times Beach, an ex-truck driver for hauler Russell Bliss came forward to retrace his route. The agency then backfilled the hole with the same soil that had been stored at the site. People here tend to talk about the flood more than the dioxin. Scapegoats seem to abound here. Steve Taylor (at left) never lived in Times Beach, but he did spend time at one of the horse farms where Bliss sprayed. The discovery of the Lemar and McDonnell sites came after the closing of the controversial Times Beach dioxin incinerator in June, which precluded burning the waste locally. She confronted Bliss, but he insisted he had used only crankcase oil. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. While explaining, in meticulous and sometimes graphic detail, all that her children have gone through, Leistner is on the verge of tears, her voice wavering. In February 1983, Anne Gorsuch Burford, the administrator of the EPA, came to grant their wish. Some was used in highway roadbeds. She traveled the country to countless rodeos, barrel races, and team ropings, often with her husband and daughter by her side. He has a roadside attraction a museum of classic cars and trucks and various odds and ends, including Coke bottles of all ages and types. On any given afternoon, youre bound to see deer wandering in the woods. This is new growth. One says, Is it hot in here, or is it just me?. There are many epidemiological studies that showed health effects in humans exposed to dioxins, says Dr. Hana Pohl, an environmental health scientist at the CDC. The more you smoke, the worse it is for your health. The haul included drums laden with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). My (goal) is to have a park that is presentable to the public and that is safe to the public and doesnt put them at any risk. Were going to have to weigh out a lot of factors. Once their stay in temporary housing ran out, it was hard for people to find homes. Back in 1982, she called Bliss and asked him, point-blank, whether he had sprayed Times Beach with dioxin. After Bliss sprayed her stables in 1971, Piatts horses died and her daughter became seriously ill. To gather evidence for her pending civil suit against Bliss, the stable owner followed the waste oil hauler and his drivers along their daily routes. This is only her second time coming to the reunion. "Is it in the houses?" The residents gathered in front of a hotel in Eureka, crowding around the outdoor pool. There are no signs to warn these park users that they are trekking through a hazardous waste site. It went to the rooftop., Boo Sowards, a tall, muscular man wearing a Mizzou T-shirt, jeans, and work boots, grew up in Times Beach. Would any human being do that?, To be sure, Bliss views himself as a victim in all this. The only request: wash down the trailers first. Exposure can cause cancer, immunodeficiency, endocrine disorders, and reproductive and developmental issues, says Dr. Arnold Schecter, a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health and one of the worlds foremost experts on dioxin. Ultimately, the state accepted $94,000 in 1988 as its part of a $660,000 settlement with several companies, a fraction of the estimated overall cleanup cost. More than a decade later, erosion spread dioxin-laced fill dirt to a nearby subdivision and contaminated a creek. I think its very interesting that PCBs were so overlooked, Taylor says. Although the state hastened to dispose of hundreds of barrels at the Callahan site in the early 1980s, the EPA did not close its case on the property until last September. Dioxin is considered a probable human carcinogen and is known to cause reproductive and immunological health problems in animals and humans. No further actions were taken at these locations. There are probably a lot of people who are unaware, she adds. If you looked up, there it was, Copeland says, still giggling about it 40 years later. As a result of a lawsuit that Piatt filed against Bliss and the chemical companies, which eventually netted her family a healthy sum, Bliss was forced to admit his waste-hauling activity and identify the dozens of sites across the state where he had dumped it. Did Times Beach officials know their city was high on the list? Jerry Lewis Is Still Alive It was beautiful., Yes. [1] [2] [3] Jerry Hicks died November 18, 2011, from cancer. After the discovery of the waste a decade later, Callahan testified in St. Louis County Circuit Court that he had used a lift truck to dump drums of waste, which Bliss had picked up at local industries, on the Callahan property. He reports that exposure to dioxin has certainly not hurt Bliss and that scientists have been mixed on the dangers of dioxin, citing a quote from the late Dr. Vernon Houk of the Centers for Disease Control, who once said that the evacuation of Times Beach was an overreaction. "Under no circumstances would I want to raise a family in Times Beach," said Dr. Gary Stein, a CDC epidemiologist. But even in the heat of election season, Taylor is happy to carve out a couple of hours to make his case about Times Beach and the problems he perceives with the cleanup. WITNESS SAYS DRIVER LIED ABOUT SPRAYING DIOXIN But for the average person, its still unwise to smoke four packs a day. For three years, investigators were baffled. DNR officials described the location of the dump as a ravine, filled 15 feet deep with rusty barrels. Another possible alternative was eliminated in December, when the only available commercial incinerator licensed to accept dioxin-contaminated waste was shuttered in Coffeyville, Kan. "Nobody told me there was anything bad in it," Bliss told a St. Louis newspaper in December. There are other holes in the EPAs theory. Three years after the horses died, dioxin was confirmed in dirt Bliss had sprayed. Stranded bear rescued from Nevada tree using tranquilizer, tarp. "I was only following orders, but I dream about it," he said. But what we want is a modicum of honesty.. The fact of the matter is I dont believe people had evidence on Monsanto. Its a difficult position for the city, says Joe Vujnich, Wildwoods director of parks and planning. The single cell was only large enough for one, so the boys had to take turns doing their hard time. In 1994, the Post-Dispatch reported a dispute involving homebuyers in Turnberry Place subdivision, which abuts the Bliss farm. Defense attorney Charles Shaw said no decision had been made whether to appeal the sentence, which included fines totaling $8,000. We would invite the press out, and we would spray-paint the prices on the homes. She has a photograph of a house with $15,800 scrawled across the siding. 1986), the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the decision of a lower court upholding an An early EPA investigation found portions of the Primm property and three other adjacent parcels to be contaminated. Her children helped walk the horses and worked in the stables, she says. How deep did it go down? Russell, Jerry W., Saturday, February 11, 2012. The plant was owned by a subsidiary of Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the eastern Missouri Superfund clean up. Suburban builders plan to construct dozens of pricey houses on former hazardous-waste sites, first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis)June 23, 1999, Wednesday. Wildwood currently zones the Strecker Road properties as nonurban, which requires a minimum lot size of 3 acres. Bliss, 48, who for years made his living hauling hazardous wastes and used oil from factories, has been quoted here as blaming a now-defunct pharmaceutical firm Its the sort of detail that might make Taylor seem like a conspiracy theorist. Did it get into the water supply? A missing page, a missing date, a missing signature. They even had a couple of pool tables, and one time, Minnesota Fats stopped by for a game. Crammed into a single bungalow, he and his siblings slept on pallets. She still has her family reunions down here. The activists appeal to the local governing body follows the public disclosure late last month of the existence of a previously undiscovered dioxin site in Ellisville. Bliss showed no emotion during sentencing before U.S. Dictrict Judge Clyde S. Cahill. Thats why just about every physician will tell his or her patient to stop smoking cigarettes, Schecter says. "You win a battle, you stick up a flag," said the Chrysler assembly line worker. Times Beach was on her list, she said. And despite McClellans best efforts to engender compassion for him, Bliss remains an unsympathetic character to those affected by his actions. Bliss then mixes the dioxin with waste oil. He was making money coming and going. Some Times Beach residents evacuated, but many defiantly stayed. Current Address: ETZR Strecker Rd, Ballwin, MO. For about a week and a half, that was the biggest topic.. If theyre going to develop the Callahan property, then we need to know exactly what took place there. Trailers were tossed about like bumper boats. In the center of the park is a large mound where the contaminated houses were buried, since only soil was burned. William Powell was St. Louis Magazine's senior editor from September 2012July 2016. "Why, if it's so dangerous, did the government wait 10 years to warn us?" Now, we might be veering slightly toward conspiracy territory, but again, Taylor shows restraint, making associations rather than accusations. Those who do return, however, are eager to have the EPA check their homes for dioxin and fill out CDC health questionnaires as part of a $500,000 statewide study of potential dioxin victims. Nobody knew it then, of course, but that oil contained massive levels of dioxin, far more than the oil sprayed at Times Beach. Regulatory authorities became aware of the contamination in October. If I had Monsanto as a potential defendant, and had the evidence on them, I certainly would bring them in as a party. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Bunch lived at Cape Cod, a little motel on the edge of town. Stuff flooded in for us to have Christmas like you wouldnt believe, she says. But while he uses words like fraud and cover-up, there is one key difference between this man and a full-blown environmental kook: Taylor knows that there are things he doesnt know. For four or five months, that site has been standing there idle. Often, Bliss is portrayed as possibly a victim of circumstance, says Steve Taylor, co-founder of the Times Beach Action Group. Jerry-Russell Bliss, Inc., appeals from denial of a license to transport hazardous waste. She contacted authorities, but their response came too slowly for her. Leistner has four children, three girls and a boy. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. Obviously I have to depend upon them to do their job and hope that we do ours.. Despite evidence of erosion, the EPAs investigation concluded that the fill area of the Callahan subsite was not contaminated (and) that the original objectives of the remedial action had either been achieved through natural processes, or were no longer considered necessary due to the preference expressed by the site owner., Aside from groundwater contamination, the most serious threat to human health posed by the contamination at the Callahan site was airborne migration, according to the EPA. Jerry Bliss was the first witness today when the hearing resumed. (And if that was the agencys aim, it succeeded; Syntex covered the cost of the cleanup and paid the government $10 million for its trouble.) "When I hear people talking about the effects they're feeling now, tears come to my eyes.". When everybody was scrambling, because we lived almost to Blakey [Road], farthest away, we didnt think the water was going to come up to us, Purler says. In all, 265,000 tons of dirt from 27 locations would be burned. Again, it showed that the incinerator was safe, and again, Taylor found flaws in the testing procedure. A boulder sits in the center of her well-manicured front yard, next to an inviting driveway leading to an attached garage. After the flood, 40 residents at one trailer park vowed to go home again. The whole scene was surreal. While the CDC warned residents to evacuate and stay out to avoid dioxin exposure, the jury is still out on its long-term effect on humans, as well as the extent of contamination. One year on Halloween, while the men were playing cards, the ladies sneaked away and toilet-papered the chief of polices house. Using disguises and borrowed cars, she tailed Bliss and the other drivers who worked for him. It had been there for a decade without harming them. To say that dioxin has never caused anythingI saw it wipe out a whole community, she says. Even if he had known that what he was hauling was toxic, there were no laws against what he did. Then there were the health problems. The waste oil salvagers list of clients included: Monsanto, Wagner Electric, Union Electric, Carter Carburetor, American Can and the now-defunct Lianco Container Corp., a can manufacturer jointly owned by Libby, McNeil and Libby and Anheuser- Busch Inc. Monsanto created dioxin as a waste byproduct in its chemical manufacturing processes and also exclusively made toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at its Krummrich plant in Sauget, Ill. until 1977. "His loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on," the family said. Ultimately, there is probably more than one correct answer to that question. This was hazardous waste It wasnt milk and yogurt.. She remembers being able to let her kids run free without having to worry. Bliss has accounted for spreading at least 7,000 gallons of dioxin-contaminated oil across the state, but officials fear there was much more. Why were they in such a hurry to clean up the Callahan site? 1 killed in shooting at Massachusetts house party, Heavy shelling in Kherson, Kharkiv destroys residences, Cuba postpones International Workers' Day parade over fuel shortages, Democrats, Republicans remain split on debt ceiling plan. I'm staying until they make me leave.". Copeland made friends with a kid who went by the name Boner T. Bunch. Over several weeks, 11 cats and four dogs dropped dead nearby. Congress created the nation's first major program to clean up hazardous waste dumps only two years ago. Fourteen calves either have been stillborn or died shortly after birth, and last week another tumor-riddled cow was slaughtered for dioxin testing by the Food and Drug Administration. Ive felt that the steps that weve taken and the timeliness of those steps have been appropriate, says Hall. Ive been looking for answers, and I dont know what direction to go in, says Jordan, who was belatedly informed by a neighbor of an EPA informational meeting held on March 12. She won't ever come back to the white frame house that sits abandoned in this flood-ravaged town of 2,500 after learning that her two sons played in dirt contaminated with one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man: dioxin. They found an artificial tree among the debris that the flood had deposited, so they loaded it into the back of a pickup truck and ran it through a carwash. She was one of a dozen witnesses called so far this week by attorneys for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which has denied Jerry Russell Bliss Inc., Mr. Bliss's concern, the hazardous waste transporter license it needs to stay in business. ", "I've eaten in it, inhaled it and rolled around in it and I'm in good shape," boasted Mayor Sid Hammer, repairing a neighbor's furnace in mud-caked jeans. Young wonders if a hysterectomy at 23, headaches so severe that medicine can't relieve the pain, her sons' rashes and birth defects in the children of several neighbors came from exposure to the toxic chemical. Sometimes its just best to leave well enough alone.. No one is testing them. Mrs. Piatt, who said Mr. Bliss had been paid $150 to oil the floor of the arena near Moscow Mills, Mo., described in gruesome detail how pet cats and dogs and a total of 62 horses succumbed to the poisoning and died from 1971 to 1973. The trees are thin, which helps visibility.
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