(This story is summarized from an “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich from the New York Times”)
It all started in 2000.
A farmer’s cows suddenly start dying off. His name is Wilbur Tennant. Tennant’s farm is close to a newly DuPont-owned landfill. A creek connects the landfill and the fields of Tennant’s farm.
Quite soon after DuPont establishes their landfill, weird things start happening to his cattle. Patches of missing hair, discolorations in their organs, and giant lesions are only a few of the conditions that his cattle start suffering from. Nearby veterinarians who he approaches for help nearby refuse to help him.
Suspicious of the circumstances, Tennant approaches an environmental lawyer named Rob Bilott. Tennant shows him the damning evidence of his cows, and Bilott agreed to take the case, despite the fact that he had only ever represented corporations in legal cases, not the other way around.
Bilott filed a suit on behalf of Tennant against DuPont in the summer of 1999. In response, DuPont commissioned a study with six veterinarians from both the EPA and DuPont. The study, weirdly enough, concluded that the health problems were caused by poor animal husbandry, despite the cattle being perfectly fine before the landfill was established.
With this unbelievable conclusion, Bilott decided to do some digging for the trial. He came across a letter sent to the EPA by DuPont that referred to a mysterious substance called “PFOA” present in the landfill.
After being denied access to records regarding PFOA from DuPont, Bilott filed a court order to legally force DuPont to release information. What he discovered next was shocking.