Residents started to tell stories. After Bliss sprayed the Shenandoah Stables in Moscow Mills in 1971, owner Judy Piatt watched barn sparrows die "by the bushel.". WITNESS SAYS DRIVER LIED ABOUT SPRAYING DIOXIN, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/27/us/witness-says-driver-lied-about-spraying-dioxin.html. 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. However, we dont have any information that would suggest there would be. Eventually, it was. Times Beach was founded, oddly enough, as a newspaper promotion. In May, a second flood hit, a sort of aftershock, and in June, Leistner won the mayoral election, defeating a challenger who wanted to stay. Hazardous materials have been identified in 17 waste disposal locations on the site. I didnt set the price, but its my fault. Entrepreneurs like Truman Nickel, however, are busy hauling away beat-up mobile homes for resale in Alabama and Louisiana with the EPA's blessing. Essentially, Hall is asserting confidence in the clean up before it has started. Bliss, 48, who for years made his living hauling hazardous wastes and used oil from factories, has been quoted here as blaming a now-defunct pharmaceutical firm McDonnell Park, which is part of the St. Louis County Parks system, is the most recent dioxin site discovered in the metropolitan area. "This is a war to stay on the land you worked and paid for. "You'd tell people, 'it's got to be a chemical in the horse arena' and they'd look at you like you were nuts," she said. BY C.D. I think its unfair, unjust All my friends say that I was a scapegoat.. The new site also raises the specter that there may be an untold number of other contaminated sites waiting to be found. Crystals used to make the antiseptic had been found in barn soil later used as fill dirt. So do two of her granddaughters. Did it get into the water supply? Now the fledgling city faces a dilemma: Two developers are asking for zoning variances so that they can wedge dozens of high-priced houses on either side of Strecker Road on parcels of land that were once part of the Bliss-Ellisville hazardous-waste site. Nothing against journalists some of them are my best friends, Wurm adds. Scottish Island for sale with asking price of $188,000. Leistner recalls meeting a woman the day that the EPA came to announce the buyout. Piatt's daughter became ill, one of nine people to get sick. WebJerry-Russell Bliss, Inc. v. Hazardous Waste Management Comm'n. A dozen rabbits' ears were swabbed with a 300 ppb dioxin solution taken from contaminated soil residue. Alligator removed from South Carolina resident's garage. This is where you find it, though.. Only Bliss actually knows how much he knew about what he was hauling. 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. In the past, Jerry has also been known as Jerry Russell Bliss and Jerry R Bliss. Copeland didnt know it then, but he had inadvertently contributed to wiping the entire town off the map. One of her adult sons has since contracted a lupus-like disease, says Jordan. I guess Wildwood is just going to have to look at it from a credibility standpoint, says Shea. Aussie tourist 'very sorry' for drunken, nude rampage in Indonesia. 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. An early EPA investigation found portions of the Primm property and three other adjacent parcels to be contaminated. She worked as a receptionist at a dental office and became a Times Beach alderwoman in 1981. Finally, Dr. Renate Kimbrough, a CDC toxicologist, suggested testing for dioxin, the only dangerous hexachlorophene byproduct. "There may be as many as 70 Times Beaches," said a senior official of the Environmental Protection Agency's hazardous waste cleanup program. A deposition had been taken in a lawsuit that stemmed from the deaths of dozens of horses after the spraying of one of the arenas. 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. Using a microphone, Burford announced to the people outside that the Superfund would buy their homes at fair market value. Given these revelations and the luxury of six additional years of hindsight, the lack of prudence exhibited by the EPA and DNR at Terre Du Lac is indeed inexplicable. I think what they really wanted to do was just get people out of the flood plain., Like Sowards, Cheryl Reid Christman recalls how close everyone was. Remedial action is mandated by the EPA in a residential setting at one ppb or higher. The walls smelled. Taylor thought that sounded like a bad idea, so he co-founded the Times Beach Action Group to oppose the incinerator. The liquor store doubled as a tackle shop, selling rods and bait. 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. Man, I loved living down here, he says. Bliss faces five lawsuits from property owners, officials said, and an unrelated indictment for tax evasion. 67115 (Mo. The initial unearthing of the contaminated caches led one state environmental official to say at the time, People move out here to escape pollution. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. Clean ups at both places have remained at a standstill for several months now. They could smoke four packs a day without any harm.. Some were rescued in boats. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "This is the first time anyone ever asked for them," an EPA official told the questioners. P.O. 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. On December 5, the river jumped its banks, and quickly, the entire town was submerged. Theres a bumper sticker that says Ignorance is Bliss., They tell stories about the flood. Its the sort of detail that might make Taylor seem like a conspiracy theorist. When he resigned, Leistner became acting mayor. From the picture window of her ranch-style home, Lorraine Jordan has a view of James S. McDonnell Park across Adie Road, where an eight-foot tall cyclone fence is now being constructed. There was an appeals process that could net disgruntled residents a few extra dollars. One day, on a dare, the boys sneaked into a church and pilfered its bell. Bliss disposed of this waste in various ways. WebThe Bliss site is an 11.5 acre tract owned by Jerry Russell Bliss, plus four contiguous properties near Ellisville, Missouri. Leistner holds her own grudges. She earned a business degree from Maryville University and served as the Treasurer of the family car business as well as a horse trainer. That paved the way for final approval of the buyout. Times Beach officials called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but it said it might be a year before it would be able to test. The paper had purchased the land from a farmer and rebranded it as a resort, a place for doctors from St. Louis to relax or catch a few fish on the weekend. The waste was the unwanted byproduct from manufacturing the antiseptic hexachlorophene. Eventually several hazardous-waste sites would be identified in the area by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her nine siblings have all lived healthy lives. So when the EPA started the process of cleaning up Times Beach, Taylor took a keen interest. I look at it this way as a lawyer, says Steincamp. WebJERRY-RUSSELL BLISS, INC., Petitioner-Appellant, v. HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT COMMISSION, et al., Respondents. They even had a couple of pool tables, and one time, Minnesota Fats stopped by for a game. Copyright 2023 SLM Media Group. I think its very interesting that PCBs were so overlooked, Taylor says. But PCBs have been found in the past along with dioxin at the now remediated sites in eastern Missouri. 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. Trailers were tossed about like bumper boats. Now officials worry that they may never find the 87 places reportedly used for dumping of dioxin-contaminated waste oil. 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. Well, you know, Leistner says now, Ive never collected.. We didnt like that, because people were building new homes. People magazine profiled their last stand. Defense attorney Charles Shaw said no decision had been made whether to appeal the sentence, which included fines totaling $8,000. This was hazardous waste It wasnt milk and yogurt.. Theres plenty of parking, a playground, and lots of picnic tables. 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 commonplace. A trio joggers run past them. STELZER. She and Frank Purler, another former resident, are looking through old photo albums and scrapbooks that he brought. I figure I was homeless for a year and a half, OLeary says. Bliss was the driver of the truck that unknowingly On a hunch, one stable owner dug up his contaminated dirt and sold it as landfill for homesites in Imperial. Monsanto is a big, big company. Eventually, in 1985, there was only one couple left living in the town, George and Lorene Klein. I'm staying until they make me leave.". Every morning, Bunch would come to the donut shop. Taylor finds Feilds explanation incredulous. Thats why just about every physician will tell his or her patient to stop smoking cigarettes, Schecter says. Sometimes its just best to leave well enough alone.. The discovery followed an announcement earlier last year of another suburban dioxin site in Ellisville on Lemar Drive. His 1974 deposition was taken several months before state and Federal officials identified dioxin in samples of the horse arena soil and traced the waste to the Verona plant. 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 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. He drove the truck for Bliss when Times Beach was sprayed. "Only if they said, 'Sid, next week you'll have cancer,' I might worry. At the moment, shes trying to find the spot where her house used to be, but with the flower garden gone, shes just not sure. It was described as a 500-year flood. [5] Outline of AbrahamHicks' teachings Suburban builders plan to construct dozens of pricey houses on former hazardous-waste sites, first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis)June 23, 1999, Wednesday. A majority of residents realized that there were no available methods then for cleaning up dioxin, and they didnt see the point of rebuilding homes that had been destroyed by the flood anyway (especially since Times Beach had voted itself out of the National Flood Insurance Program a few years before). "Bliss told me it couldn't be in the oil because he didn't haul chemicals.". As of now, no specifics about Russel Flowers involvement in the accident have emerged on the internet. Officials seemed to be acting as if the residents might be contagious. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. asked Bill Keffer, the beleaguered EPA engineer in command here. (Burford would resign a month later, amid allegations of mismanagement of the Superfund program.). My (goal) is to have a park that is presentable to the public and that is safe to the public and doesnt put them at any risk. 1 killed in shooting at Massachusetts house party, Heavy shelling in Kherson, Kharkiv destroys residences, Cuba postpones International Workers' Day parade over fuel shortages, Democrats, Republicans remain split on debt ceiling plan. You got to do your homework on these pieces, otherwise youre wasting your time. (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.) The area has been fenced off and excavated. In the center of the park is a large mound where the contaminated houses were buried, since only soil was burned. Or they might go fishing in the river. Knowing that everybody had to move, sellers in the area drove up prices. Within a couple of days, cats, dogs, and birds in the vicinity began to drop dead. 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 town is gone, but the people remain. Bliss worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft as well before being promoted to the Sales Operation Lead position at Nayamode. 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. Even if he had known that what he was hauling was toxic, there were no laws against what he did. Jerry Springer died Thursday at his home, his family said in a statement shared with Insider. As these families were being made their offers, they were taking the money and running, Leistner says. She took it to the dry cleaner, but the owners refused her business. 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. We have no way of knowing that there will not be additional sites in the future. "Under no circumstances would I want to raise a family in Times Beach," said Dr. Gary Stein, a CDC epidemiologist. They put up drywall in her house. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. Crammed into a single bungalow, he and his siblings slept on pallets. Jerry Lewis is, in spite of it all, still alive. Bliss has said he was not told the oil contained dioxin. "His loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on," the family said. The greatest surface concentrations, 169 ppb, are present in a wooded ravine, which is currently being fenced off. ", Dave Covert feels bad about what happened. No. You can see it, deal with it. 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. This suggests that some of the mixed hazardous waste that Bliss sprayed came from another source or sources. 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. "What will happen to my kids in 10 years?". Bob Feild, who headed the EPAs clean up at Times Beach, says the agency is currently following up on several leads it received recently regarding other potential hazardous waste sites in the St. Louis area. At this point in time, I have seen nothing to suggest that there may be additional sites out there, says Feild. The bulk of the park is down below, across the river. Citizens blame state bureaucrats for deadly delay. 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 After Bliss sprayed her stables in 1971, Piatts horses died and her daughter became seriously ill. To gather evidence for her pending civil suit against Bliss, the stable owner followed the waste oil hauler and his drivers along their daily routes. Scapegoats seem to abound here. Everyone in attendance says that if the town were reopened tomorrow, they would move back in a heartbeat. EPA considers itself blameless. Rock 'n' roll's first great wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis the singer and pianist nicknamed "The Killer" has died. However, the EPA is expected to release its Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis (EE/CA) for the two projects this month. '', Mr. Lambarth said that in a 1974 deposition he falsely denied ever hauling chemicals ''because I wanted to keep my job.'' So why were they in such a rush to get the barrels off the Callahan property? asks Shea. February 13, 2022 1 Min Read. A part-owner of a stable where 62 horses died after dioxin-tainted oil was sprayed testified today before the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commssion that the man who sprayed the oil had told her it contained a special fly-killing ingredient. The plant was owned by a subsidiary of Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the eastern Missouri Superfund clean up. But the fire was rekindled, and the remaining soil was burned. But this blue-collar town beneath gray granite bluffs on the muddy Meramec River has become a symbol of a national trauma no one seems to know how to control. Instead, she has learned the little she knows from the scant newspaper coverage afforded the subject. In Times Beach, an ex-truck driver for hauler Russell Bliss came forward to retrace his route. And blah, blah, blah. Her husband, Grover Callahan, worked as a truck driver for the Bliss Waste Oil Co. in the early 1970s. 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. During the past few months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken more than 2,000 soil samples from the park, which is located near the North St. Louis County municipality of St. Ann. 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. In addition to the oil that he picked up at lube joints, he also hauled sludge from industrial facilities. Asked about Wurms criticism, Uhlenbrock says the developer was bent out of shape because he wanted the article to say that the Callahan property never had any dioxin or Russell Bliss on it. Uhlenbrock said he was unable to confirm whether dioxin had been found on the site or whether there was a Bliss connection to the property. "If they had, I wouldn't have taken it. She was one of a dozen witnesses called so far this week by attorneys for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which has denied Jerry Russell Bliss Inc., Mr. Bliss's concern, the hazardous waste transporter license it needs to stay in business. "Why, if it's so dangerous, did the government wait 10 years to warn us?" They didnt have anything. Russell, Jerry W., Saturday, February 11, 2012. She traveled the country to countless rodeos, barrel races, and team ropings, often with her husband and daughter by her side. Bliss was, and remains, a clever businessman. 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. The same man was under investigation for spraying dioxin-laced oil on roads across the state in the early 1970s. William Powell was St. Louis Magazine's senior editor from September 2012July 2016. In all, 265,000 tons of dirt from 27 locations would be burned. Taylor says he is unsure whether he will cooperate with the EPAs request. Then came a 7-Eleven. 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. He arrives wearing the uniform of politics: a blue suit, white shirt, tie, cuff links. The full history of the Callahan site and the others in the Caulks Creek watershed remains something of an enigma. At the time, the EPA considered anything above 1 part per billion hazardous. She had a knack for finding the best ice cream shops and loved Dr. Pepper. It was like everybody was related to everybody, Leistner says. It was nearly a week before people could return to begin the daunting task of rebuilding. You cant tell me dioxin has never caused anything. It was only by chance that officials discovered dioxin here two weeks ago after interviewing residents who recalled that a trucker had sprayed oil on their dirt roads to keep down dust a decade ago. People here tend to talk about the flood more than the dioxin. Look at the record of decision. Both locations are suspected to have been contaminated by waste-oil operator Russell Bliss sometime in the early 1970s, according to the EPA. You didnt have to lock your doors., Velda Pratt, who lived in Times Beach with her husband and four kids, talks about coming back after the flood.

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