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. April 28 (UPI) -- A British piercing enthusiast broke his own Guinness World Record when the number of flesh tunnels in his face increased to 17. ST. LOUIS -- Waste-oil hauler Russell Bliss, who allegedly sprayed dioxin-contaminated oil around the state in the 1970s, was sentenced Friday to one year in When a Missouri assistant attorney general asked the waste hauler in 1977 to identify his top customers, the first words out of Bliss mouth were, Oh, I would say Monsanto.. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. 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. Officials won't know until next month, when 250 new dirt samples come back from the lab. Jerry Springer died Thursday at his home, his family said in a statement shared with Insider. There are probably a lot of people who are unaware, she adds. BOX 191606 State officials have cited Mr. Bliss's role in the dioxin case and other pollution episodes over the last decade as reasons for denying his license. Her nine siblings have all lived healthy lives. Then we left when they drug us out kicking and screaming, she quips. He was 85 years old. Why put your tail between your legs and run now after you been living with it so long? The mixture is used for dust Or they might go fishing in the river. I will bet you two weeks pay there is no dioxin on your streets, she recalls Bliss telling her. Jerry Lewis, the legendary actor and comedian, has died, his talent agency said Sunday. The person told him he could take his tools, but hed have to leave the supplies. Feild did not return phone calls. Look at the record of decision. He was making money coming and going. One year on Halloween, while the men were playing cards, the ladies sneaked away and toilet-papered the chief of polices house. 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. Leistner (at right) remembers four churches and four taverns, a perfect balance. Remedial action is mandated by the EPA in a residential setting at one ppb or higher. 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. By its order dated August 7, 1987, this Court found the NEPACCO defendants, IPC, Russell Bliss and Jerry-Russell Bliss, Inc. jointly and severally liable In doing so, Taylor argues, the agency ignored the various other priority pollutants present in the soil, including PCBs, some of which might not have originated at the Verona plant. We do not have the expertise that the U.S. EPA and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have. After Bliss sprayed the Shenandoah Stables in Moscow Mills in 1971, owner Judy Piatt watched barn sparrows die "by the bushel.". We Eventually, they moved into a place of their own and started a family. By the EPAs count, the Bliss-Ellisville site contained at least seven separate waste-disposal locations. 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. The state presented its evidence in the case at an hearing in January, and Bliss' defense of the It would be better to err on the side of safety, says Shea, than risk exposing people to more hazardous waste by digging foundations on the Callahan property and inadvertently excavating a heretofore undetected layer of toxic waste. Over several weeks, 11 cats and four dogs dropped dead nearby. Besides giving the site a clean bill of health without any soil testing, the DNR ignored its own warnings signals. The company's filing status is listed as Voluntarily Dissolved and its File Number is 00205495. After a 30-day public comment period, the agency will then decide which means of remediation to pursue. He arrives wearing the uniform of politics: a blue suit, white shirt, tie, cuff links. We decided that we would do it ourselves, so we started taking up a collection to pay to have our streets tested. When the EPA got wind of that, it decided to test immediately, too. Bliss showed no emotion during sentencing before U.S. Dictrict Judge Clyde S. Cahill. McDonnell Park, which is part of the St. Louis County Parks system, is the most recent dioxin site discovered in the metropolitan area. A guard and a caution sign were posted at the entrance to town, a bridge that came across from the high side of the river, to keep people out. 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. After all, Bliss sprayed the oil on his own property, and once even claimed to have tasted it to test its strength. Rock 'n' roll's first great wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis the singer and pianist nicknamed "The Killer" has died. Meanwhile, Faron Rowden, a beefy bartender, is among 300 locals fed up with waiting for answers. "Why, if it's so dangerous, did the government wait 10 years to warn us?" "What will happen to my kids in 10 years?". Adjacent to the ravine, in a playing field, dioxin has been found at more than 9.5 ppb. By Phil McCausland. They didnt take the barrels from the Bliss farm until 1996, when the incinerator was here. Its good to put a lot of thought into a process such as this, but when are we going to see some outcome? The younger Bliss is appealing the denial of his request for a hauling permit from the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commission. It is also a probable carcinogen. The news, on the other hand, broke on the 22nd of December, with no mention of any accident. This was home. The more you smoke, the worse it is for your health. So she took matters into her own hands. If you were born and raised there, you grew up there, but then you moved there., On Saturday nights, she and her husband would get together with friends to play penny-ante poker. Truckers crudely called him the hemorrhoid with the Polaroid. He wrote ticket after ticket. A part-owner of a stable where 62 horses died after dioxin-tainted oil was sprayed testified today before the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commssion that the man who sprayed the oil had told her it contained a special fly-killing ingredient. Some streets here measured 100 parts per billion--100 times higher than the level the CDC considers dangerous. Teachers made them sit at the front of class, away from the rest of the students, in case they were contagious. Given these revelations and the luxury of six additional years of hindsight, the lack of prudence exhibited by the EPA and DNR at Terre Du Lac is indeed inexplicable. Judy Piatt, who was co-owner of Shenandoah Stables in 1971 when the arena was oiled for dust control, testified that the driver for Russell Bliss, a waste oil dealer, ''told me there was special stuff put in the oil for special customers that would kill flies.''. April 28 (UPI) -- An isolated private island off the coast of Scotland is for sale with an asking price of about $188,000. Jerry Bliss was the first witness today when the hearing resumed. As McClellan points out, Houk was the person who ordered it in the first place. Last Saturday morning, Steve Taylor heard a tapping at his apartment door, a gentle rapping that he hopes to hear no more. She still has her family reunions down here. In the case of Terre Du Lac, the tracking sheet shows a DNR investigator determined that Bliss had oiled the roads on at least one occasion in 1976. The document further states that prior oiling had occurred though (it is) uncertain who did the earlier oiling. Based on this information alone, the DNR concluded that due to the late time period of oiling, sampling for TCDD (dioxin) appears unwarranted. The EPA agreed by ruling that no further action appears necessary at the site. 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. People were attempting to determine if Russell died in the accident, which was suspected to be a motorcycle accident. S.C. woman wins $300,000 lottery prize -- her second jackpot in 3 years. Yet the poisoning of Times Beach, and 14 other dioxin sites in Missouri and six in Illinois, happened long before that, a deadly legacy by industry and government from an era when there were no comprehensive laws to protect the public from dangers that few had imagined. April 28 (UPI) -- The PGA Tour's Mexico Open was briefly interrupted when a swarm of bees sent a group of golfers ducking in the grass. Scientists disagree about how much it takes to put someone at risk. Bliss was, and remains, a clever businessman. "Bliss told me it couldn't be in the oil because he didn't haul chemicals.". The haul included drums laden with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). On December 5, the river jumped its banks, and quickly, the entire town was submerged. "What is going to happen to us next?" Eventually, it was. (Burford would resign a month later, amid allegations of mismanagement of the Superfund program.). His acting career began at the age of 12 when he was given a role in the western series The As Leistner describes it, Times Beach was idyllic. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Most lung cancer is caused by smoking, but most people who smoke dont get lung cancer. WebJERRY-RUSSELL BLISS, INC. is a Missouri Domestic Gen. Business - For-Profit filed on November 15, 1978. At the moment, shes trying to find the spot where her house used to be, but with the flower garden gone, shes just not sure. In addition to receiving a firm ass-whooping from his father, Copeland was sentenced to an hour in jail. The same goes for rolling around in dioxin. On the recommendation of an EPA ombudsman, a retest was completed. Congress created the nation's first major program to clean up hazardous waste dumps only two years ago. They include: Holiday Hill Amusement Park, Lindenwood College, McCarthy Brothers Construction Co., St. Charles Quarry and Terre Du Lac, a residential/lake development near Bon Terre, Mo. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. Scapegoats seem to abound here. During the past few months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken more than 2,000 soil samples from the park, which is located near the North St. Louis County municipality of St. Ann. Others drove out through the rising water, trying to follow the roads they couldnt see. May she rest there in peace, and may those who cared for her continue to feel her unconditional love. 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. To say that dioxin has never caused anythingI saw it wipe out a whole community, she says. Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers owner who shepherded the NBA team to 10 championships from the Showtime dynasty of the 1980s to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday. After months of testing, the EPA last month disclosed Imperial dioxin levels as high as 350 parts per billion and recommended that six families be relocated so cleanup can begin. Mrs. Piatt was followed to the stand by Gary Lambarth, a former Bliss driver, who testified that he lied about hauling chemicals in a 1974 deposition because his former boss had told him ''to keep my memory fuzzy about things like that. Bunch lived at Cape Cod, a little motel on the edge of town. But it was not until Piatt's horses began dying and her daughter became ill that CDC toxicologists believed something was dreadfully wrong. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Downstream from the Verona plant, dairyman Bill Davis watched eight cows die after they drank from a river a half-mile from the factory where all Missouri's dioxin was once produced. The toxic chemical was contained in waste oil Bliss' company sprayed on roads, parking lots, truck terminals and horse arenas for dust control. For both PCBs and dioxin, it was a yes. Were hesitant to give this information to an agency that we feel is corrupt. ", "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. Wildwood residents originally voted to approve the creation of the municipality to control development, thereby ensuring that greenspace would be preserved. He remembers being approached by an official one day while he was working. Slowly, the town grew. After the flood, 40 residents at one trailer park vowed to go home again. We have no way of knowing that there will not be additional sites in the future. It's fear of the unknown.". So why were they in such a rush to get the barrels off the Callahan property? asks Shea. Its a thermometer with one-liners painted across its face. A majority of residents realized that there were no available methods then for cleaning up dioxin, and they didnt see the point of rebuilding homes that had been destroyed by the flood anyway (especially since Times Beach had voted itself out of the National Flood Insurance Program a few years before). "Is it in the houses?" Feild, nevertheless, appears to have already arrived at a predetermined conclusion that those locations will be found to be free of any contamination. They also had to spend several weeks working on the citys road crew. Just little bullshit. On the other side was a small but vocal group of peopleLeistner estimates 50 of Times Beachs 801 familieswho argued that the dioxin wasnt a threat. Russell Bliss was accused of picking up chemical waste from a plant in Verona in the early 70s, mixing it with used motor oil from service stations, and selling the toxic elixir to horse farms, churches, and small towns as a dust suppressant. Bliss son still lives on a Strecker Road property once owned by his father, from which the EPA only a few years ago finally removed more than 900 truckloads of dioxin-contaminated dirt in addition to an estimated 1,500-2,000 barrels of toxic chemicals. Just off Strecker Road, in the gully washes that feed into Caulks Creek, the first of thousands of barrels of toxic waste were discovered nearly 19 years ago. It was described as a 500-year flood. Copeland made friends with a kid who went by the name Boner T. Bunch. The dispute pitted neighbors, even relatives, against one another, eroding the citys greatest asset, its family atmosphere. You didnt have to lock your doors., Velda Pratt, who lived in Times Beach with her husband and four kids, talks about coming back after the flood. The dioxin has been traced to six tanker truckloads of waste Bliss picked up in 1971 from the now-defunct Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Co. in Verona, Mo. Monsanto refused to consider the governors appeal, even though before a federal ban on the chemical the company had been the sole producer of PCBs in North America. The highest measure of contamination found at McDonnell Park is 275 parts per billion (ppb). Seven families sued the responsible Realtor, and they were awarded a cumulative settlement of more than $500,000. Records confirmed Bliss had been there. She worked as a receptionist at a dental office and became a Times Beach alderwoman in 1981. Remember Times Beach: The Dioxin Disaster, 30 Years Later. He had acquired an official document detailing suspected dioxin sites across Missouri. Shipping the waste to Coffeyville would have been prohibitively expensive even if it had remained an option, according to one local official. They had rebuilt before, and they would do it again. Waste was tracked to the Verona plant. We continue to follow up on any information that is provided to us by the public.. But PCBs have been found in the past along with dioxin at the now remediated sites in eastern Missouri. The fact of the matter is I dont believe people had evidence on Monsanto. The first offers were made that month. She traveled the country to countless rodeos, barrel races, and team ropings, often with her husband and daughter by her side. April 28 (UPI) -- A Nebraska high school said it broke a Guinness World Record when more than 1,000 students participated in a water balloon toss event. The DNR presented further evidence at the same proceeding that linked the chemical manufacturer indirectly to a 1977 incident in which a Bliss driver dumped toxic chemicals including one exclusively made by Monsanto at a site in Jefferson County. Then came a 7-Eleven. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Will it be cheaper to buy out the town or clean it up?". For one, Houk made his oft-quoted statement in the early 90s at a convention sponsored by Syntex, the company responsible for the dioxin that Bliss dumped in Times Beach. It remains a priority. Joseph P. Teasdale wrote a letter to Monsanto chairman John W. Hanley, requesting that the St. Louis-based chemical company pay for the cleanup. 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. Dioxin, its silent, unseen. Callahan started working for Bliss in the early 1970s, which would have been around the same time Bliss started hauling hazardous waste. OLeary (at right) came back to her house as soon as she could after the flood. More than a decade later, erosion spread dioxin-laced fill dirt to a nearby subdivision and contaminated a creek. It brought a lot of revenue into Times Beach, Leistner says, laughing. Three years after the horses died, dioxin was confirmed in dirt Bliss had sprayed. But what we want is a modicum of honesty.. Times Beach officials called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but it said it might be a year before it would be able to test. Wildwood city officials have questioned her credentials, and she says a real-estate agent recently criticized the motives behind her activism. Back in 1982, she called Bliss and asked him, point-blank, whether he had sprayed Times Beach with 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. Ive felt that the steps that weve taken and the timeliness of those steps have been appropriate, says Hall. He is now 78 and lives just off I-44 near Cuba. Hed take out the trash in exchange for a free pastry. 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. Steve Taylor (at left) never lived in Times Beach, but he did spend time at one of the horse farms where Bliss sprayed. I think what they really wanted to do was just get people out of the flood plain., Like Sowards, Cheryl Reid Christman recalls how close everyone was. But for the average person, its still unwise to smoke four packs a day. The sense of community, of belonging, made up for any financial lacking. Ive got letters from EPA and DNR also stating that everything is cool on the property. But Wurm says he doesnt want to discuss the project in detail, fearing his plans will be misrepresented. Sue OLeary, 76, lived in the Beach for 20 years. no. The townspeople couldnt afford to have the results quantified, so they were given only yes-or-no answers. "This is the first time anyone ever asked for them," an EPA official told the questioners. Hazardous materials have been identified in 17 waste disposal locations on the site. The EPA has refused to reveal the list of alternatives prior to the publication of its EE/CAs, but according to Ellisville city manager Jeff LaGarce, the choices will likely include a technique called thermal desorption, an unproven process that allows the waste to be detoxified on site. So when the EPA started the process of cleaning up Times Beach, Taylor took a keen interest. Each gap represents a former road. Taylor thought that sounded like a bad idea, so he co-founded the Times Beach Action Group to oppose the incinerator. And some, he mixed together with oil in storage tanks in both Missouri and Illinois, before selling it as a dust suppressant. "We're still paying dearly," local activist Yolanda Bohrer said. Once we receive the public comment then well be in the position to move forward with remedy selection. The fencing is certainly just an interim measure, while we are preparing the final alternative, says Bob Feild of the EPA. Leistner has four children, three girls and a boy. Bliss son still lives on a Strecker Road property once owned by his father, from which the EPA only a few years ago finally removed more than 900 On any given afternoon, youre bound to see deer wandering in the woods. As for developer Wurm, he believes the Callahan property has been cleaned up, but hes counting on the findings of state and federal regulators to protect him against any future liability. I didnt set the price, but its my fault. 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. I dont really think there was enough dioxin down here to do anything, he says. The lots were small, and you needed at least two to build a house. The top level found beneath the surface in Ellisville was 1,173 ppb, according to the EPA. The park is nice enough. The whole scene was surreal. A federal court jury July 22 found Bliss guilty of over-stating his business expenses for 1976, 1977 and 1978. They wanted more money, Leistner says. Asked about Wurms criticism, Uhlenbrock says the developer was bent out of shape because he wanted the article to say that the Callahan property never had any dioxin or Russell Bliss on it. Uhlenbrock said he was unable to confirm whether dioxin had been found on the site or whether there was a Bliss connection to the property. WebJerry-Russell Bliss, Inc. v. Hazardous Waste Management Comm'n. She and Frank Purler, another former resident, are looking through old photo albums and scrapbooks that he brought. She had cancer in her female organs that had metastasized to her blood, Leistner says. ), The worst thing is not knowing, Taylor says. I look at it this way as a lawyer, says Steincamp. TBAG had opposed the project, saying it was unsafe to human health and the environment. Worst of all, Piatts two young daughters, who played in the arena as if it were a sandbox, fell ill. Doctors and veterinarians were stumped, but Piatt suspected the spraying was to blame. Waiting proved to be a bad move. "It's literally like trying to piece together a cold trail," said Bill Hedeman, director of EPA's hazardous waste cleanup program. Before Times Beach the most notorious of the sites contaminated by Bliss became a household word, the EPA had already rated the Callahan property one of the most contaminated hazardous-waste sites in the nation. There are a lot of people I know who were exposed to the same stuff and moreand didnt., Today, the land that was once Times Beach has been turned into Route 66 State Park. You cant tell me dioxin has never caused anything. But she was determined to have Christmas. "Thirty years from now we'll know more about dioxin's effect on people and it may not be as bad as we think, or it might be worse.". On the other side of the road, at 210 Strecker Rd., developer Larry Wurm of James Properties Inc. is proposing to build Wildwood Ridge, an 11-home development on 7.6 acres of land now owned by Jean Callahan. WebClay Campbell makeup artist / makeup supervisor / makeup (209 episodes, 1959-1966) Gertrude Wheeler hair stylist / hair styles (173 episodes, 1960-1966) To outsiders, Times Beach residents might as well have bubonic plague. I think theyve done that.. Its the sort of detail that might make Taylor seem like a conspiracy theorist. Surveyors have also staked out a section of the park near Jordans residence with bright orange flags. In the center of the park is a large mound where the contaminated houses were buried, since only soil was burned. Those same officials are now siding with the developers, claiming that the once highly contaminated land is no longer a threat to human health, that it is now safe enough for backyard swingsets and tomato patches. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.