The story of dangerous water contamination in West Virginia is central to a new film in theaters now – “Dark Waters.” Shown at The Lewis in downtown Lewisburg this past weekend, the theater also hosted the West Virginia Rivers Coalition for a question and answer session, keeping the public up to date on the newest information.
“Dark Waters” tells the story of Robert Bilott, an environmental defense attorney working on behalf of chemical companies to improve compliance or defend them in cases of noncompliance. After recommendation from Bilott’s grandmother, Parkersburg native Wilbur Tennant, whose cows are dying of a mysterious disease, approached Bilott, asking him to take his case. Tennant suspects the local DuPont plant is dumping something into the stream, an assumption that would prove to be correct and lead Bilott to spend nearly 20 years fighting DuPont in court.
The chemical, known as PFOA, and several similar chemicals, are used in the creation of Teflon and several other household products. Bilott and DuPont, as part of a class action lawsuit against DuPont on behalf of the people exposed to PFOA, would appoint a number of scientists to establish if these chemicals could cause disease; the study, one of the largest of its kind ever conducted, established links between PFOA and testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and pregnacy-induced high blood pressure. Damages found against DuPont in favor of those exposed and diagnosed with the disease total approximately $671 million, according to the film.
Autumn Crowe, a scientist with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, hosted the question and answer session, explaining that the chemical structure of PFOA and similar chemicals means it does not break down in the environment and cannot be eliminated by the human body. This means that small exposure, in the parts per billion, over a long time can accumulate in one person.
Although Bilott sent a 972-page-long letter to the Environmental Protection Agency and others detailing the problems with PFOA as early as 2001, there are currently no regulations in place to protect drinking water.
“On the federal level, there is HR 535 that just recently passed [the House of Representatives] and I’m happy to report that it would establish these forever chemicals … as hazardous materials,” explained Crowe. “This bill would also put a maximum contaminant level on our drinking water utilities across the nation. One congressman in West Virginia voted in the yea for that, and it was [Rep. David] McKinley. … The White House has said that if it does pass the Senate, they will veto it because it oversteps EPA’s authority. [However], EPA hasn’t done anything for 20 years and they failed to protect the public health of our citizens, we feel like it’s time.”
Although this means action at the federal level is slow, a coalition of state representatives, including local delegate Cindy Lavender-Bowe, have introduced a bill in the House of Delegates that would create new requirements around the PFOA-related chemicals.
“What this bill would do [is] four things: it would require the chemical companies like DuPont who’s still operating in the state and still discharging hazardous chemicals into our water, it would make them report how much [PFOA and others] they are discharging, it would … require maximum contaminant levels in our drinking water utilities, … it would also establish a task force to further monitor these chemicals, and it would help clean up the areas that have already been contaminated,” Crowe said.
House Bill 4542 was introduced the same day as the screening, January 24. After meeting several individuals pushing for regulation of the chemical, including one Parkersburg native who, after training to be a competitive swimmer in both pools and rivers near the city, lost a leg to an illness caused by PFOA and the related chemicals, Bowe signed on as one of the bill sponsors. She also cited the 2015 diesel spill near Lewisburg and power and water outages during several natural disasters, saying the people she represents in District 42 could understand being uncomfortable with not having access to reliable, safe drinking water.
“This is not a partisan issue, everyone wants their water safe,” said Bowe. “The right to have safe drinking water goes across all of that. … Clean drinking water should be a right for our citizens.”
Luckily for Greenbrier County, these chemicals are created in manufacturing processes that are not suspected to be present in high quantities in the county.
“I would say the city of Lewisburg water is pretty safe,” Crowe said. “There’s not a whole lot of industries [here that produce PFOA-related chemicals]. If you were, say, living in Parkersburg or the chemical valley area, I would be concerned, but I drink tap water in Lewisburg. We’re very, very fortunate in this area that we don’t have the chemical industries that they are seeing over in the Ohio Valley.”
Crowe also noted PFOA testing could be extremely expensive and that the city has regulated safety guidelines.
“The water utility in Lewisburg is required to do water quality monitoring. They report those once a year [under] the Safe Drinking Water Act. They’re mandated to do that. I’m not sure if they test for PFOA, because they’re not mandated to … but they [do] test for a whole slew of chemicals,” Crowe said.
She pushed for those wanting to get involved to talk to their representatives about the issue and others relating to water.
“Contact your legislators about the tank bill, tell them you don’t want any above ground storage tanks exempt from regulations; contact them about the Clean Drinking Water Act of 2020, which would regulate these forever chemicals,” Crowe said.
Crowe also noted State Senator Stephen Baldwin has already announced support for the bill. House Bill 4542 is currently in the House Health and Human Resources subcommittee.
In an interview with The West Virginia Daily News, Bowe also pointed to House Joint Resolution 25 in the same subcommittee, that would introduce a public bill of rights to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the state’s natural resources. If ratified, it would allow West Virginia voters to decide on an an amendment to the state constitution, adding the following:
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment. West Virginia’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the State shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
To learn more about the DuPont case, read the January 6, 2016, New York Times article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” see “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo, or read Bilott’s memoir about PFOA cases, titled “Exposure.”
Read more in the Friday, January 31, 2020, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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