Don’t Trouble the Water
How “Dark Waters” shows the need for Environmental Justice
We’ve all scrambled eggs and made grilled cheese sandwiches on non-stick pans. Cooking breakfast on this common household item has become an established tradition in the lives of millions of Americans. Did you ever wonder why these popular pans worked so well? Little did we know, this non-stick quality was achieved using a product named Teflon, which was manufactured by Dupont.
Dark Waters, a cinematic thriller produced by Todd Haynes in 2019, follows Rob Bilott’s inspiring twenty-year legal fight against the chemical giant Dupont. Rob Bilott, a corporate defense attorney, learns about the sinister secrets that Dupont concealed in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and uses his legal experience to unmask how the corporation has polluted the small town. Bilott’s fight against Dupont was an unprecedented challenge, an uphill legal battle that’s comparable to David’s illustrious fight against Goliath.
Dupont was making billions each year from their Teflon non-stick coating. However, Rob Bilott discovered that Dupont was using harmful substances called PFOAs and PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) to make this coating. Dupont referred to these substances as “C8” because of its structure, (meaning it was a chain of 8 carbon molecules). These 8-carbon structures are some of the strongest chemical bonds on the planet, and scientists call it a “forever chemical” because it never fully degrades.
Dupont had known since the 1960s that C8 was toxic in animals, and since the 1970s knew that its factory workers had high concentrations of it in their bloodstream. Furthermore, Dupont scientists knew that in the early 1990s, there were connections to cancerous tumors which resulted from C8 exposure. Bilott discovered that DuPont had been running tests of the effect of PFOAs for decades, finding that it causes cancer and birth defects. But Dupont hid these findings from the public because the chemical was unregulated and they didn’t want to risk the success of their profitable Teflon product line.
Dupont also dumped thousands of tons of toxic C8 sludge in a landfill next to Wilbur Tennant’s farm. Tenant (Bill Camp) found many mysterious defects and mutations in his cattle, and contacted Bilott once he made the discovery. Bilott visited the Tenant farm, and was astonished at how badly Tenant’s property had deteriorated.
‘‘One hundred-ninety of these animals I’ve lost on this farm. You tell me something’s not wrong here” — Wilbur Tenant
This is perhaps the most important scene of the movie. In this harrowing image, the farmer’s backyard is shown with hundreds of burial mounds where he has buried his dead cows. A few seconds later, the movie shows the stream that the cows drank out of, which flows from Dry Run Landfill upstream (ironic, right). The stream bed prominently contains bleached rocks that are white as pearl, clearly stained by the C8 dumped nearby. This scene shows the viewers for the first time the extent to which Dupont’s chemical dumps had effects on Tenant’s property, and simultaneously serves to illustrate the surface level of the lies and coverups perpetuated by the chemical giant.
Bilott, against advice from his legal firm, decided to dig deeper into this case. When Bilott started this journey, he went into it knowing that his reputation and family life was on the line. But Bilott pushed forward. He was able to connect the C8 sludge to the unusual death of Tenant’s cows, and forced Dupont to release all the documents they had referencing C8. Bilott was given access to over 110,000 files and papers. He had the evidence at his fingertips, however an incredible amount of determination, patience, and stamina was required for this to succeed.
Perhaps the most inspiring part about Bilott’s journey was that he was completely selfless and exemplified humility throughout the trials and tribulations he faced. He easily could have dropped the case or not even started it at all. But Bilott was determined to get justice for farmer Wilbur Tenant and the residents of Parkersburg, West Virginia. He had an perpetual desire to hold Dupont accountable for their unhinged actions and recurring repercussions.
Throughout this whole process, Dupont was betting on his failure. Despite the overwhelming evidence that Bilott brought to them, Dupont was able to escape legal pressure due to their immense amount of money and power. Bilott was fighting for an under-represented farmer, and practically doing this all on his own. The US government decided that Bilott’s case wasn’t worthy of their time, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was mostly controlled by people with close ties to Dupont and other chemical companies.
“They have all the money, they have all the firepower, and they’ll use it. I know, I was one of them… [Dupont is] trying to force me to stop.” — Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo)
Furthermore, Bilott had another obstacle in his way: He had to win the trust of the residents of Parkersburg. Parkersburg was one of the smaller towns that Dupont gave new life to. Dupont provided jobs for thousands of the town’s workers, which would be nonexistent if Dupont was to relocate. In an interview, Parkersburg native and current mayor, Tommy Joyce, said that nobody from the town talked about C8. He explained that it was a matter of “not wanting to bite the hand that fed you.”
Dupont built community centers and public parks, naming them after the themselves. They did everything they could to be associated with the residents, including printing their name on important buildings around the town. They became crucial to this small West Virginia town’s identity. Dupont fundamentally held the town together. Simply investing a few million dollars into community areas in exchange for the trust of a high majority of the 50,000 residents was an effective strategy to say the least.
Bilott, however, continued on his non-stop mission to get justice for the underrepresented residents of Parkersburg. He coordinated efforts to help test the citizens of Parkersburg for C8 and was able to collect an immense amount of data — which he used to support his many class-action lawsuits against Dupont that were finally finished decades later. In the end, these lawsuits would end up costing Dupont a total of 671 million dollars, and the residents of Parkersburg, West Virginia received fair justice and compensation.
Reflection:
Christ School’s MLK Day film festival was an amazing opportunity for me to advance my understanding of justice in all forms, especially environmental justice. Dark Waters was worth watching, and serves as a vivid reminder of how important change can be. Throughout the course of the film, the producers successfully convey a zoomed in image of Bilott’s inspiring fight, mainly through the lenses of personal sacrifice and determination.
For Dupont, greed was more important to them than their workers’ and community’s health and well being. This case ultimately tarnished Dupont’s reputation, and even though it is still a thriving company today, those who were affected by it’s immoral actions still vividly remember the path Dupont chose to take.
From the start of the legal battles, it became clear that personal sacrifice was embedded in Rob Bilott’s mission. He was dedicated not only to getting justice for the citizens of Parkersburg, West Virginia, but also to expose the company and prevent any similar environmental hazards from ever taking place again. After he saw first-hand the dangerous effects of the chemicals, he selflessly fought for two decades, while at the same time, was forced to support his family despite having to take many substantial pay cuts. Even today, he is still advocating for environmental issues, including both water and air pollution.
One day before his assassination on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr asked the nation “to develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” Bilott’s life journey directly ties into Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mission. Rob Bilott, even up to this day exemplifies MLK’s forward-looking perspective to the furthest possible extent. His willing self-sacrifice and devotion to giving justice to underrepresented people serves as a vivid reminder of how one person can make a large change in the world. In a similar way to how Martin Luther King, Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement for racial justice, Rob Bilott spearheaded an effort to hold Dupont accountable for their harmful actions to Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Not only should we thank Rob Bilott and others like him for sparking this movement, but we should also work to continue his legacy and hard work for environmental justice. In a similar way to MLK’s vision for racial equality, Dark Waters shows how one person, in this case, an outsider, can spark much needed change despite the odds being stacked against them.
