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. Jerry-Russell Bliss v. Hazardous Waste - casetext.com Sometimes, Copeland and Bunch would spend a summer day walking the railroad tracks on the west end of town. Natalie M. Bliss, 58, passed peacefully on Tuesday, February 2, 2021, in her home with her husband and daughter by her side. Its good to put a lot of thought into a process such as this, but when are we going to see some outcome? Stranded bear rescued from Nevada tree using tranquilizer, tarp. Stelzer of the Riverfront Times. It was described as a 500-year flood. Dioxin is known to cause damage to the human reproductive and immunological systems. Bliss has accounted for spreading at least 7,000 gallons of dioxin-contaminated oil across the state, but officials fear there was much more. On this day, fuzzy dice are 35 percent off. And blah, blah, blah. 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. They put up drywall in her house. He reports that exposure to dioxin has certainly not hurt Bliss and that scientists have been mixed on the dangers of dioxin, citing a quote from the late Dr. Vernon Houk of the Centers for Disease Control, who once said that the evacuation of Times Beach was an overreaction. [1] [2] [3] Jerry Hicks died November 18, 2011, from cancer. The residents gathered in front of a hotel in Eureka, crowding around the outdoor pool. WebIn Jerry-Russell Bliss, Inc. v. Hazardous Waste Management Comm., 702 S.W.2d 77 (Mo. It was in Illinois and it had a big fence around it. She won't ever come back to the white frame house that sits abandoned in this flood-ravaged town of 2,500 after learning that her two sons played in dirt contaminated with one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man: dioxin. The DNR investigation of Terre Du Lac in the spring of 1983, however, does not appear to have been as thorough as the EPA now claims. Essentially, Hall is asserting confidence in the clean up before it has started. April 28 (UPI) -- A lost dog in Northern Ireland was found 26 days later after walking more than 40 miles to the home of his former owners. Donna Lopers family moved to Times Beach when she was 6 months old. This was hazardous waste It wasnt milk and yogurt.. Where are they now? Catching up with Mike Bliss WebJerry Bliss lives in Saint James, MO; previous cities include Ellisville MO and Ballwin MO. "Only if they said, 'Sid, next week you'll have cancer,' I might worry. Prosecutors said Bliss wrote 27 checks to fictitious people overstating business expenses, thereby reducing his federal income taxes. Crystals used to make the antiseptic had been found in barn soil later used as fill dirt. "Then the dioxin scare hit and most said they didn't want to fight it," said Charlie Stone, the park owner. 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. "You win a battle, you stick up a flag," said the Chrysler assembly line worker. The Times Beach story began as a medical mystery in 1971 when Bliss was hired to dispose of 18,000 gallons of gooey, foul-smelling sludge from the defunct Northeastern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co. in Verona. CNN Chicago: Toxic Town: Bliss Transcript This time Teasdale made the plea with the TV news cameras rolling. Both locations are suspected to have been contaminated by waste-oil operator Russell Bliss sometime in the early 1970s, according to the EPA. He was 80. In addition to receiving a firm ass-whooping from his father, Copeland was sentenced to an hour in jail. They wanted to paint, but she wouldnt let them, told them to go help somebody else. When I talked with the (St. Louis) Post-Dispatch, I got misquoted. Leistner grew up in Valley Park and moved to Times Beach in December 1956, at age 18. Bliss has said he was not told the oil contained dioxin. There are so many bad stories that I cheated people out of their money, Leistner says, her tone turning sharp. Dioxin is considered a probable human carcinogen and is known to cause reproductive and immunological health problems in animals and humans. One daughter had cancer and endometriosis. Nobody knew it then, of course, but that oil contained massive levels of dioxin, far more than the oil sprayed at Times Beach. He arrives wearing the uniform of politics: a blue suit, white shirt, tie, cuff links. 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. The plant was owned by a subsidiary of Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the eastern Missouri Superfund clean up. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. Seven families sued the responsible Realtor, and they were awarded a cumulative settlement of more than $500,000. Slowly, the town grew. 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. "I was only following orders, but I dream about it," he said. In laboratory animals, dioxin causes cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, diseases of the nerves, kidneys, liver and even death at the lowest levels tested, a few parts per trillion in some cases. Dioxin, its silent, unseen. Russell Flowers Death Cause: How The highest measure of contamination found at McDonnell Park is 275 parts per billion (ppb). 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 blame their inaction on scientists who once believed dioxin decays faster than it does. When everybody was scrambling, because we lived almost to Blakey [Road], farthest away, we didnt think the water was going to come up to us, Purler says. The courts appraisals came back even lower than the EPAs offers, and the other benefits were no longer available. This site that was discovered over in Ellisville was completely new information, he adds. She started doing amateur detective work. For both PCBs and dioxin, it was a yes. This is where you find it, though.. WebIn his early life, Jerry Hicks had been a circus acrobat for two years in Cuba, and then, beginning in 1948, had toured for 20 years as a musician, master of ceremonies, and comedian. If the city allows W.J. So do two of her granddaughters. The bank that stood between the town and the river was steep and tall. Aside from a motorcycle and a possibly vintage gas pump, the museum contains items that are fairly similar to those in the gift shop, except that these tchotchkes are ostensibly not for sale. 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. Now officials worry that they may never find the 87 places reportedly used for dumping of dioxin-contaminated waste oil. Scapegoats seem to abound here. Bliss, 49, is believed responsible for spreading much of the dioxin that contaminated at least 31 sites in central and eastern Missouri, including the St. Louis suburb of Times Beach. Some folks arent sure its even there. Were hesitant to give this information to an agency that we feel is corrupt. Well, no. Evening Standard/Getty Images. Eventually several hazardous-waste sites would be identified in the area by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hed take out the trash in exchange for a free pastry. 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. Piatt had a hunch that there was something in Bliss' oil and started befriending his drivers and tailing his trucks. Sue OLeary, 76, lived in the Beach for 20 years. Ive been to Monsanto maybe twenty times, Rollins said. In the short term, the federal agency has settled for containment and fencing off the contaminated areas. But what we want is a modicum of honesty.. Some were rescued in boats. It is also a probable carcinogen. Is it in the ditches? 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. Under crossexamination after Tuesday's testimony, Mr. Lambarth acknowledged that since Jan. 1 this year he has been working for a waste oil concern that is competing with Mr. Bliss for customers. Records confirmed Bliss had been there. No further actions were taken at these locations. She traveled the country to countless rodeos, barrel races, and team ropings, often with her husband and daughter by her side. For instance, because some of the toxins at Times Beach were similar to those in Agent Orange, he says, the government might have had an interest in minimizing the Times Beach investigation, to limit its own culpability in Vietnam. No one is testing them. WITNESS SAYS DRIVER LIED ABOUT SPRAYING DIOXIN, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/27/us/witness-says-driver-lied-about-spraying-dioxin.html. 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. The haul included drums laden with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). She took it to the dry cleaner, but the owners refused her business. But for the average person, its still unwise to smoke four packs a day. Catching up with Mike Bliss. No (s). He was 87 years old. The legendary and controversial TV host was 79 years old. As McClellan points out, Houk was the person who ordered it in the first place. Bliss sprayed dioxin-contaminated oil on unpaved roads, parking lots, truck terminals and horse arenas as a dust suppressant. April 28 (UPI) -- Animal services officers in South Carolina responded to a home where a resident was shocked to find an alligator in his garage. 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). Staff writer Dale Russakoff contributed to this report. I dont know his real name, because he never did say it, Copeland says. This is not to say there is no controversy about dioxin. As she walks along the path, OLeary points out breaks in the trees. Copeland made friends with a kid who went by the name Boner T. Bunch. Its no problem. Early 1970s: Waste oil hauler Russell Bliss is hired to remove dioxin from the tanks. So when the EPA started the process of cleaning up Times Beach, Taylor took a keen interest. But nobody from the federal agency has bothered to walk across the street and inform her about the purpose of these actions. I would move back in a second., After the flood, he and his brothers began rebuilding immediately. "Why, if it's so dangerous, did the government wait 10 years to warn us?" They didnt have anything. They were also eligible for relocation assistance; if their new house outside of Times Beach cost more than their settlement, the Superfund program would pay part of the difference. The liquor store doubled as a tackle shop, selling rods and bait. Current Address: ETZR Strecker Rd, Ballwin, MO. But if youre in the market for something called a Menopause Meter, youre in the right place. I do not believe that at all. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National MS Society . Steve Taylor (at left) never lived in Times Beach, but he did spend time at one of the horse farms where Bliss sprayed. "Is it in the houses?" But he was forced to do jail time anyway, on tax-evasion charges, since he didnt report his waste-hauling income to the IRS. Stuff flooded in for us to have Christmas like you wouldnt believe, she says. He was 80. Why were they in such a hurry to clean up the Callahan site? 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. All rights reserved. Bliss could not be reached for comment. Wildwood city officials have questioned her credentials, and she says a real-estate agent recently criticized the motives behind her activism. 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. By 1982, the Missouri attorney generals office had entered negotiations with two other firms, American Can and GK Technologies. Though it was rocky at times, their iconic relationship lasted for five years before they called it quits in 1982. Flood stage was 18.5 feet, and the water crested at nearly 43 feet. The person told him he could take his tools, but hed have to leave the supplies. Jerry (The market for hexachlorophene collapsed in 1972 when baby powder made with it killed 36 infants in France.). I didnt set the price, but its my fault. In an effort to control the dust, the city hired waste oil hauler Russell Bliss to spray them down, which he did multiple times between 1972 and 1976. Dog missing for 26 days walked 40 miles to his former home. We It's been 30 years since dioxin contamination was discovered in Times Beach, in one of the largest environmental disasters in our nation's history. 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. Dec 17, 1985) The court holds that the state Hazardous Waste A few days after it reopened, the city received the results from its soil tests. No one can answer the questions the people of Times Beach are asking. 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 missive from Martha Steincamp, the EPA regional counsel, instructed Taylor and other members of the Times Beach Action Group (TBAG) to turn over any information they may have concerning potential hazardous waste sites in the St. Louis area. The rugged land has resisted development for a long time, so a rural atmosphere still clings to these verdant hills, despite the encroachment of affluent subdivisions on the remaining ridgetop farms. 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. chemical plant, where the EPA presumes all of the toxins originated. Within a couple of days, cats, dogs, and birds in the vicinity began to drop dead. Actor and comedian Jerry Stiller has died due to natural causes, his son, actor Ben Stiller said in a tweet. Theyve dragged me through the courts and I dont think theyre ever gonna quit, he told CNN. Over several weeks, 11 cats and four dogs dropped dead nearby. She sent a petition with hundreds of signatures to President Ronald Reagan, asking for a buyout. 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 "Nobody told me there was anything bad in it," Bliss told a St. Louis newspaper in December. One day, on a dare, the boys sneaked into a church and pilfered its bell. Jerry Hatcher, the town's heavy equipment dealer, lost a sale when a customer found dust on a tractor tire. 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. Into it would be loaded all of the contaminated soil, not just from Times Beach, but from dioxin sites across Missouri. The park is nice enough. In the past, Jerry has also been known as Jerry Russell Bliss and Jerry R Bliss. Taylors list of objections goes on and on. British man breaks world record with 17 flesh tunnels on his face. The agency then backfilled the hole with the same soil that had been stored at the site. Most of all missing accountability, Stelzer wrote in a piece titled Why the Times Beach Incinerator Should Be Shut Down.. 'Fog of bees' briefly interrupts PGA Tour's Mexico Open. Leistner (at right) remembers four churches and four taverns, a perfect balance. That was a shock., Hes a dioxin skeptic. The following quantities of hazardous wastes have been estimated: 1. He was 85 years old. Then there were the health problems. In 1994, the Post-Dispatch reported a dispute involving homebuyers in Turnberry Place subdivision, which abuts the Bliss farm. Bliss was, and remains, a clever businessman. Sometimes, its thought that people are asking for complete safety, complete security. He operates a roadside attraction, a classic car museum in St. James, and he travels to flea markets. It was beautiful., Yes. "Hindsight would be wonderful," Lafser said. The chemical companies, he has always maintained, never told him exactly what he was hauling. WebThe Bliss site is an 11.5 acre tract owned by Jerry Russell Bliss, plus four contiguous properties near Ellisville, Missouri. In February 1983, Anne Gorsuch Burford, the administrator of the EPA, came to grant their wish. Houses were ripped from their foundations. Only a small portion of the residents ever made it back. Obviously I have to depend upon them to do their job and hope that we do ours.. 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. Her house had been ravaged. Callahan started working for Bliss in the early 1970s, which would have been around the same time Bliss started hauling hazardous waste. Jerry Russell Obituary - St. Louis, MO Her children helped walk the horses and worked in the stables, she says. A Post-Dispatch story dated April 4, 1983, describes the 500 cubic yards of soil stored at the Callahan site as being contaminated., A later EPA inspection showed that the land had subsequently subsided and would require stabilization. Did Times Beach officials know their city was high on the list? They married in California and moved in with his parents, sharing a two-bedroom house on Forest Road. He drove the truck for Bliss when Times Beach was sprayed. The sense of community, of belonging, made up for any financial lacking. We do not have the expertise that the U.S. EPA and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have. During the Depression, a lot of the people in the city moved into their homes in Times Beach to ride out the hard times, Leistner says. My dad drove up on a little concrete pad and said, The water might get the tires wet. Shoot. One says, Is it hot in here, or is it just me?. She still has her family reunions down here. "When I hear people talking about the effects they're feeling now, tears come to my eyes.". A boulder sits in the center of her well-manicured front yard, next to an inviting driveway leading to an attached garage. But PCBs have been found in the past along with dioxin at the now remediated sites in eastern Missouri. There are many epidemiological studies that showed health effects in humans exposed to dioxins, says Dr. Hana Pohl, an environmental health scientist at the CDC. The same goes for rolling around in dioxin. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Every morning, Bunch would come to the donut shop. Some streets here measured 100 parts per billion--100 times higher than the level the CDC considers dangerous. (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.) See the article in its original context from. Jerry Russell Bliss, Age 66. aka Jerry Bliiss. Mennonites came in to help rebuild. They remembered birds dying. The shop sells Route 66 everythingshot glasses, piggy banks, polo shirtsand metal prints of old business signs. This is the most ludicrous thing Ive seen since I was given an arrest warrant for burning a log, says Taylor, referring to one of his past acts of civil disobedience. His acting career began at the age of 12 when he was given a role in the western series The 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. 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 full history of the Callahan site and the others in the Caulks Creek watershed remains something of an enigma. Often, Bliss is portrayed as possibly a victim of circumstance, says Steve Taylor, co-founder of the Times Beach Action Group. Dioxin concentrations of one part per billion are considered hazardous. The other St. Louis companies used PCBs or other hazardous substances for different purposes.. Memories of the eviction are still too emotional. 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. "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.". is jerry russell bliss still alive 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. Mr. Lambarth's testimony contradicted that of a former manager of the Verona chemical plant, who said that Bliss drivers were always furnished protective gear and warned about the hazardousness of the sludge as they pumped it into their trucks. Times Beach, which involved burning over 265,000 tons of dioxin contaminated waste from more than two dozen sites in eastern Missouri. 20,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD. Eventually, they moved into a place of their own and started a family. She currently holds the position of Senior Program Manager at The Walt Disney Company. When asked to comment last week, Monsanto spokeswoman Diane Herndon responded with this prepared statement: No information exists that any dioxin material was hauled by Bliss for Monsanto and so no material from Monsanto would have been sprayed on roads. McClellan calls Bliss an intelligent and thoughtful man, and hes stayed in touch with the erstwhile waste hauler over the years. In the center of the park is a large mound where the contaminated houses were buried, since only soil was burned. [5] Outline of AbrahamHicks' teachings In Taylors view, the EPA was more interested in making Syntex legally responsible for the cleanup than exploring the full scope of the contamination. After her recent success on Love Is Blind, Bliss can also add reality TV star to her resume. Again, it showed that the incinerator was safe, and again, Taylor found flaws in the testing procedure. They could smoke four packs a day without any harm.. Taylor says he is unsure whether he will cooperate with the EPAs request. She and Frank Purler, another former resident, are looking through old photo albums and scrapbooks that he brought. The first offers were made that month. As things stand, Byrne Builders holds an option to buy the land from its current owners, Gerald and Patricia Primm. Leistner recalls meeting a woman the day that the EPA came to announce the buyout. 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. But the company itself would still pay Russell (Bliss). After all, Bliss sprayed the oil on his own property, and once even claimed to have tasted it to test its strength. It's a free country. 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. On a hunch, one stable owner dug up his contaminated dirt and sold it as landfill for homesites in Imperial. I think its very interesting that PCBs were so overlooked, Taylor says. When considering deviations from the existing zoning code, the city takes into account several factors, such as the availability of utility services, topography and road conditions, but nothing on the municipal books deals with building houses on top of former hazardous-waste sites. An early EPA investigation found portions of the Primm property and three other adjacent parcels to be contaminated. ELR Citation: ELR 20492. The chemical companies paid him to take the sludge, and then he turned around and sold it to somebody else. The waste oil salvagers list of clients included: Monsanto, Wagner Electric, Union Electric, Carter Carburetor, American Can and the now-defunct Lianco Container Corp., a can manufacturer jointly owned by Libby, McNeil and Libby and Anheuser- Busch Inc. Monsanto created dioxin as a waste byproduct in its chemical manufacturing processes and also exclusively made toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at its Krummrich plant in Sauget, Ill. until 1977.
