[5] Outline of AbrahamHicks' teachings Bliss has accounted for spreading at least 7,000 gallons of dioxin-contaminated oil across the state, but officials fear there was much more. no. The government estimates there are at least 14,000 hazardous waste dumps around the country that are leaking poisons, and residents in those areas want answers, too. Though it was rocky at times, their iconic relationship lasted for five years before they called it quits in 1982. Feild did not return phone calls. On Aug. 7, Taylor asked the St. Louis County Council to assist TBAG by forming a task force to independently investigate possible hazardous waste sites that may have been overlooked in the past by the EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). ELR Citation: ELR 20492. "We had no authority to do anything until the Superfund law passed in 1980," Hedeman said. WebClay Campbell makeup artist / makeup supervisor / makeup (209 episodes, 1959-1966) Gertrude Wheeler hair stylist / hair styles (173 episodes, 1960-1966) For both PCBs and dioxin, it was a yes. After Bliss sprayed the Shenandoah Stables in Moscow Mills in 1971, owner Judy Piatt watched barn sparrows die "by the bushel.". The level of PCBs was low, not a major concern, but the dioxin was a problem. Additional dioxin that migrated off-site has been removed from the roadside and an area next to a nearby pedestrian walk. (Despite repeated requests, the agency was unable to comment for this story. I figure I was homeless for a year and a half, OLeary says. 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. One of Copelands tasks was to help a waste hauler named Russell Bliss spread used motor oil on the unpaved streets, in an effort to control dust. That the provision of the Superfund law the EPA is using against the environmentalists is normally reserved for attacking corporate polluters hasnt been overlooked. "Hindsight would be wonderful," Lafser said. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. If I thought it was something bad, would I spray it on my own farm where my family is? Bliss asked CNN in 1997, in one of the few extensive interviews hes given. Jerry Hatcher, the town's heavy equipment dealer, lost a sale when a customer found dust on a tractor tire. 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.''. It brought a lot of revenue into Times Beach, Leistner says, laughing. William Powell was St. Louis Magazine's senior editor from September 2012July 2016. Denial of Application. This was home. We continue to follow up on any information that is provided to us by the public.. Those who returned were instructed to leave, and anyone who hadnt was told to stay away. Contacted by phone last Friday at EPA headquarters in Kansas City, Martha Steincamp, regional counsel for the EPA, could not provide details on the Bliss-Ellisville cleanups and referred all questions on the matter to Bob Feild, the agencys project manager. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Bliss faces five lawsuits from property owners, officials said, and an unrelated indictment for tax evasion. Whether the 88-year-old wants to be is another story. Dioxin clings to dirt and dust particles and officials fear that residents may inhale it or swallow it if they return home. Then there were the health problems. Monsanto is where we got the pesticide, the stuff that I thought smelled like bug spray. 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. We've found it on the shoulders of the roads, but how much is in the roadbed? 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 So when the EPA started the process of cleaning up Times Beach, Taylor took a keen interest. As the offers improved slightly, many of the holdouts grudgingly gave in. No one is testing them. "This is the first time anyone ever asked for them," an EPA official told the questioners. Her husband, Grover Callahan, worked as a truck driver for the Bliss Waste Oil Co. in the early 1970s. 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. He is now 78 and lives just off I-44 near Cuba. Sid Hammers wife didnt want to stay in Times Beach, but Sid didnt see anything wrong, Leistner says. Feild, nevertheless, appears to have already arrived at a predetermined conclusion that those locations will be found to be free of any contamination. One document that TBAG copied is a verbatim transcript of an interview conducted by an EPA official in 1980 at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. WebThe Bliss site is an 11.5 acre tract owned by Jerry Russell Bliss, plus four contiguous properties near Ellisville, Missouri. For four or five months, that site has been standing there idle. The plant was owned by a subsidiary of Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the eastern Missouri Superfund clean up. There are few records. 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 Dioxin levels here are lower, but wider spread, officials said. Some was used in highway roadbeds. In other words, Feild is denying that the EPA itself has even a scintilla of evidence that could help pinpoint any potentially untreated hazardous waste sites in eastern Missouri. You can see it, deal with it. Ultimately, there is probably more than one correct answer to that question. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. On this day, fuzzy dice are 35 percent off. She was a wonderful friend, as evidenced by her many visitors. If theres any dioxin left, it doesnt seem to bother the wildlife. Mennonites came in to help rebuild. 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. They didnt take the barrels from the Bliss farm until 1996, when the incinerator was here. No (s). 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. 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. 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. Much to the chagrin of longtime residents, a trailer park opened, followed by a second one. His parents opened a donut shop at the corner of Forest Road and Park Drive, serving Boston creams and coffee to the residents of the tight-knit community, nestled in a valley along the Meramec River, southwest of St. Louis. The discovery followed an announcement earlier last year of another suburban dioxin site in Ellisville on Lemar Drive. The biggest fish appears to have either slipped off or broken the line, however. Eventually, one of the towns police officers, a 300-pound man nicknamed Tiny, whom Copeland remembers eating quite a few long johns from his parents shop, identified the culprits. It was an overstatement, to be sure, but one rooted in factat least until the Great Depression. "When I hear people talking about the effects they're feeling now, tears come to my eyes.". The news, on the other hand, broke on the 22nd of December, with no mention of any accident. Flood stage was 18.5 feet, and the water crested at nearly 43 feet. Piatt's daughter became ill, one of nine people to get sick. In both instances, the allegations were not based so much on environmental concerns as they were on the bottom line. Petitioner asserts: denial deprived petitioner of due process Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began warning people in low-lying areas that a severe flood was coming. Russell, Jerry W., Saturday, February 11, 2012. 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. It remains a priority. Bliss became wealthy spraying it across the state, and he even sprayed it on his own farm, which he would have avoided had he known it was toxic, he has said. Officials seemed to be acting as if the residents might be contagious. "We're still paying dearly," local activist Yolanda Bohrer said. He arrives wearing the uniform of politics: a blue suit, white shirt, tie, cuff links. The park is nice enough. Its a thermometer with one-liners painted across its face. Officials won't know until next month, when 250 new dirt samples come back from the lab. Almost 100 horses died agonizing deaths at three horse arenas Bliss visited. She had cancer in her female organs that had metastasized to her blood, Leistner says. She doesnt speak to me., Eventually, the properties of those who didnt take the buyout went into condemnation. The first half of the name refers to Russell M. Bliss, the waste hauler responsible for dumping the pollutants. I dont care who you would ask, they would say yes.. I know Monsanto was not a viable defendant in this litigation.. Leistner has four children, three girls and a boy. The sense of community, of belonging, made up for any financial lacking. That paved the way for final approval of the buyout. 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. Remember Times Beach: The Dioxin Disaster, 30 Years Later. Share your thoughts and memories of Natalie. Natalie faced her 20-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis with bravery, grace, and dignity. Were hesitant to give this information to an agency that we feel is corrupt. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Look at the record of decision. Dioxin is known to cause damage to the human reproductive and immunological systems. She had a knack for finding the best ice cream shops and loved Dr. Pepper. "Under no circumstances would I want to raise a family in Times Beach," said Dr. Gary Stein, a CDC epidemiologist. ", "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. "But such a huge amount of dirt is not feasible to burn. But PCBs have been found in the past along with dioxin at the now remediated sites in eastern Missouri. No. Survived by Gregory Russell (Melissa McGuire), Barbara Russell, many family members and countless Leistner recalls meeting a woman the day that the EPA came to announce the buyout. 67115 (Mo. The new site also raises the specter that there may be an untold number of other contaminated sites waiting to be found. He was hired to dispose of the waste after Northeastern was absorbed by Syntex Agribusiness Inc. Court records show that Northeastern had waste buried on farm land and discharged some waste through its plant's sewage system. An early EPA investigation found portions of the Primm property and three other adjacent parcels to be contaminated. 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. Both locations are suspected to have been contaminated by waste-oil operator Russell Bliss sometime in the early 1970s, according to the EPA. Remedial action is mandated by the EPA in a residential setting at one ppb or higher. Dioxin, its silent, unseen. Within a couple of days, cats, dogs, and birds in the vicinity began to drop dead. 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. People magazine profiled their last stand. The environmental activist, who is too young to remember the Selective Service System, and too poor to be concerned about the Internal Revenue Service, had, nevertheless, received a frightening message from a federal agency. You got to do your homework on these pieces, otherwise youre wasting your time. You cant tell me dioxin has never caused anything. The words come easily, honed over decades of repetition. So Ill just let the record of decision stand for itself, OK? This suggests that some of the mixed hazardous waste that Bliss sprayed came from another source or sources. In August, the EPA warned Imperial residents of a potential dioxin problem, later revealing that it suspected contamination of 40 other sites in Missouri. Investigators rely on decade-old memories of people like Covert, a tall, thin man who claims a variety of ills from chemical exposure, to follow the toxic trail. All rights reserved. They would write him a check., Rollins allegations have been corroborated to a degree by Judy Piatt, the one-time owner of Shenandoah Stables in Moscow Mill, Mo. Trailers were tossed about like bumper boats. 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.. A few days after it reopened, the city received the results from its soil tests. But what we want is a modicum of honesty.. Parents in nearby towns wince when Karen Adams, a Times Beach school bus driver, picks up their kids. What Im going to ask is that they provide the citizens with some level of accountability, because we certainly arent getting it from the EPA and we shouldnt have to depend on the developer to provide it.. April 27 (UPI) -- A Sydney, Australia, woman is trying to solve a mystery after hundreds of dollars' worth of drinks, including Gatorade, Powerade, Coke and Fanta started showing up at her home. Only Bliss actually knows how much he knew about what he was hauling. Eventually, they moved into a place of their own and started a family. (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.) Seven families sued the responsible Realtor, and they were awarded a cumulative settlement of more than $500,000. 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. Why were they in such a hurry to clean up the Callahan site? Last Saturday morning, Steve Taylor heard a tapping at his apartment door, a gentle rapping that he hopes to hear no more. She had a brand-new leather jacket that had gotten dirty in the flood. The haul included drums laden with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 20,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD. We didnt like that, because people were building new homes. Mr. Bliss contends he was not warned the dioxin wastes were hazardous and that his license has been denied unfairly because of past practices that were legal and According to a 1981 IEPA document, Piatt recalled that Bliss possibly obtained waste from Monsanto. The IEPA summary goes on to state: Judy Piatt has a diary and pictures of such activities, but will not release these to (EPA) Region VII on the advise of her attorney., But perhaps the most damning indictment comes from Bliss himself. Three years after the horses died, dioxin was confirmed in dirt Bliss had sprayed. 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. WebJerry Bliss lives in Saint James, MO; previous cities include Ellisville MO and Ballwin MO. The announcement of the new site came only weeks after the EPA and DNR had completed their controversial incineration project at At the Lemar site, the dioxin levels are even higher. 314-918-3000. WITNESS SAYS DRIVER LIED ABOUT SPRAYING DIOXIN, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/27/us/witness-says-driver-lied-about-spraying-dioxin.html. 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. [1] [2] [3] Jerry Hicks died November 18, 2011, from cancer. It was in Illinois and it had a big fence around it. The highest measure of contamination found at McDonnell Park is 275 parts per billion (ppb). She worked as a receptionist at a dental office and became a Times Beach alderwoman in 1981. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. Teachers made them sit at the front of class, away from the rest of the students, in case they were contagious. There are other holes in the EPAs theory. Its clean as a whistle, says Wurm of the Callahan property. It is also a probable carcinogen. Natalie is reunited in Heaven with her parents, Robert and Nanon Hyink; her mother-in-law, Evelyn Bliss; and a host of cowboys, cowgirls, and horses that loved her deeply. I will bet you two weeks pay there is no dioxin on your streets, she recalls Bliss telling her. (The market for hexachlorophene collapsed in 1972 when baby powder made with it killed 36 infants in France.). Ive been to Monsanto maybe twenty times, Rollins said. Records confirmed Bliss had been there. The dispute pitted neighbors, even relatives, against one another, eroding the citys greatest asset, its family atmosphere. It was beautiful., Yes. Joseph P. Teasdale wrote a letter to Monsanto chairman John W. Hanley, requesting that the St. Louis-based chemical company pay for the cleanup. For about a week and a half, that was the biggest topic.. 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. You know, hed give Gary (Lambarth) some of these old, old sex magazines. 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. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Evelyn J. Bliss and is located at 149 Strecker Road, Ballwin, MO 63011. Supreme Court of The toxic chemical was contained in waste oil Bliss' company sprayed on roads, parking lots, truck terminals and horse arenas for dust control. Just about everything seems out of place, even the stuff that says Route 66 on it. In February 1983, Anne Gorsuch Burford, the administrator of the EPA, came to grant their wish. Scientists disagree about how much it takes to put someone at risk. Due to budgetary constraints, long-range solutions now under consideration include alternative technologies shunned by the EPA during the Times Beach clean up. He was making money coming and going. She and Frank Purler, another former resident, are looking through old photo albums and scrapbooks that he brought. WebJERRY RUSSELL BLISS, INC., Petitioner-Appellant and Cross-Appellee, v. THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD et al., Respondents-Appellees and Cross-Petitioners. April 28 (UPI) -- A bear stuck in a Nevada tree was rescued by wildlife officials and firefighters who tranquilized the bruin and then caught the large animal in a tarp.

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