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. Her nine siblings have all lived healthy lives. You can move it, but you can't get rid of it. We do not have the expertise that the U.S. EPA and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have. Ive felt that the steps that weve taken and the timeliness of those steps have been appropriate, says Hall. I do not believe that at all. 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 prison on unrelated charges of income tax fraud. He remembers being approached by an official one day while he was working. Defense attorney Charles Shaw said no decision had been made whether to appeal the sentence, which included fines totaling $8,000. 67115. These practices came to the EPA's attention in 1979 and Syntex entered into a consent agreement to clean up the sites. 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. Bliss faces five lawsuits from property owners, officials said, and an unrelated indictment for tax evasion. More than a decade later, erosion spread dioxin-laced fill dirt to a nearby subdivision and contaminated a creek. Nebraska students toss water balloons for Guinness World Record. Teachers made them sit at the front of class, away from the rest of the students, in case they were contagious. 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. Much to the chagrin of longtime residents, a trailer park opened, followed by a second one. In Times Beach, the dioxin level was more than 100 parts per billion. This site that was discovered over in Ellisville was completely new information, he adds. The following year, in November 1982, the city clerk received a phone call from a reporter. Theyve dragged me through the courts and I dont think theyre ever gonna quit, he told CNN. It was described as a 500-year flood. The words come easily, honed over decades of repetition. We've found it on the shoulders of the roads, but how much is in the roadbed? Well, you know, Leistner says now, Ive never collected.. They all have thyroid disorders. Entrepreneurs like Truman Nickel, however, are busy hauling away beat-up mobile homes for resale in Alabama and Louisiana with the EPA's blessing. The EPA received its own test results on December 23 and delivered a Christmas message to the citizens of Times Beach. It was during this period that Bliss was trucking some of the sludge to his own storage tanks where he mixed it with waste oil and sold it for dust control. McDonnell Park, which is part of the St. Louis County Parks system, is the most recent dioxin site discovered in the metropolitan area. 67115 (Mo. Some, he spread across his own farm. I remember this old guy he used to give us stuff. Representatives of the DNR and the Missouri Attorney Generals office were also present. If theres any dioxin left, it doesnt seem to bother the wildlife. The citys mayor, Joe Capstick, didnt like the sound of PCBs, and he needed to look out for his family, so he resigned and left. 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. "Hindsight would be wonderful," Lafser said. Offers were based solely on square footage, which angered the owners of newer, nicer houses. Dioxin, its silent, unseen. Theres plenty of parking, a playground, and lots of picnic tables. Ive been to Monsanto maybe twenty times, Rollins said. We feel that our residents should not be subjected to having that site next to them for an excessive period of time., On the other hand, the director of the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department, expressed unqualified satisfaction with the EPAs handling of the McDonnell Park site. The buyers said they signed sales contracts without being told by their real-estate agents that their new homes were adjacent to a hazardous-waste site. In all, 265,000 tons of dirt from 27 locations would be burned. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National MS Society . At the hearing on the matter, the DNR submitted two contracts between Monsanto and Russell Bliss dated 1975 and 1976, the time period in which Bliss is known to have sprayed Terre Du Lac. ", Dave Covert feels bad about what happened. Further, the incinerator testing had a variety of shortcomings, which were enumerated in a series of stories by C.D. Every morning, Bunch would come to the donut shop. The sense of community, of belonging, made up for any financial lacking. WebJERRY-RUSSELL BLISS, INC., Petitioner-Appellant, v. HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT COMMISSION, et al., Respondents. I look at it this way as a lawyer, says Steincamp. They were in there in 1981, pulling out barrels and treating them differently from the rest of the waste. The dioxin has been traced to six tanker truckloads of waste Bliss picked up in 1971 from the now-defunct Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Co. in Verona, Mo. After the discovery of the waste a decade later, Callahan testified in St. Louis County Circuit Court that he had used a lift truck to dump drums of waste, which Bliss had picked up at local industries, on the Callahan property. 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. You know, hed give Gary (Lambarth) some of these old, old sex magazines. "I was only following orders, but I dream about it," he said. Feild did not return phone calls. "Is it in the houses?" Downstream from the Verona plant, dairyman Bill Davis watched eight cows die after they drank from a river a half-mile from the factory where all Missouri's dioxin was once produced. Leistner recalls meeting a woman the day that the EPA came to announce the buyout. Those most severely exposed get follow-up physicals. Why put your tail between your legs and run now after you been living with it so long? Although the LaGarce lauds the EPA for its quick initial response, he expresses concerns about any further delay in cleaning up the Lemar site. The chemical companies, he has always maintained, never told him exactly what he was hauling. But while he uses words like fraud and cover-up, there is one key difference between this man and a full-blown environmental kook: Taylor knows that there are things he doesnt know. He had acquired an official document detailing suspected dioxin sites across Missouri. But despite what McClellan implies, scientists agree that dioxin is dangerous. You got to do your homework on these pieces, otherwise youre wasting your time. April 29 (UPI) -- An Australian tourist facing possible flogging after being accused of going on a drunken nude rampage in the Indonesian province of Ache says he felt "almost possessed" at the time. It had been there for a decade without harming them. He's mopped up the mud and moved back into his mobile home at the Easy Living Trailer Park with his wife and 5-year-old son. Steve Taylor (at left) never lived in Times Beach, but he did spend time at one of the horse farms where Bliss sprayed. People were attempting to determine if Russell died in the accident, which was suspected to be a motorcycle accident. 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. Then there were the health problems. "This is a war to stay on the land you worked and paid for. 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. In August, the EPA warned Imperial residents of a potential dioxin problem, later revealing that it suspected contamination of 40 other sites in Missouri. The haul included drums laden with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Across the street in the park, a family of four walks with their two dogs along the asphalt trail that skirts the dioxin-contaminated site. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. She is survived by her devoted husband of 36 years, Jerry Bliss; her loving daughter, Hannah Bliss; her siblings, Paula Wohldmann, Steve Hyink, Carrie Hyink, and Mary Rust; her father-in-law, Russell Bliss; and her brother-in-law, Cash Bliss. A federal court jury July 22 found Bliss guilty of over-stating his business expenses for 1976, 1977 and 1978. People here tend to talk about the flood more than the dioxin. The cleanup crew immediately sent 592 drums to a landfill in Wright City, Mo., but more than 600 barrels were stored on-site, along with 500 cubic yards of soil. By mid-1982, the agency was making rounds on the farms and reportedly visited Times Beach as well, but still no one informed the town itself what had happened. In addition to the oil that he picked up at lube joints, he also hauled sludge from industrial facilities. 1986), the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the decision of a lower court upholding an "It's literally like trying to piece together a cold trail," said Bill Hedeman, director of EPA's hazardous waste cleanup program. Sid Hammers wife didnt want to stay in Times Beach, but Sid didnt see anything wrong, Leistner says. Bliss worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft as well before being promoted to the Sales Operation Lead position at Nayamode. Only Bliss actually knows how much he knew about what he was hauling. When he resigned, Leistner became acting mayor. oklahoma public land deer hunting Accept X The problem, however, was that Bliss was also being paid to haul away the sludge from a chemical plant in Verona, Mo., that had stored up dioxin-laced wastes from The dioxin content in his mixture was estimated at 350 parts per million. For one, Houk made his oft-quoted statement in the early 90s at a convention sponsored by Syntex, the company responsible for the dioxin that Bliss dumped in Times Beach. British man breaks world record with 17 flesh tunnels on his face. Jerry Bliss was the first witness today when the hearing resumed. It was beautiful., Yes. She had a knack for finding the best ice cream shops and loved Dr. Pepper. 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. Sometimes its just best to leave well enough alone.. 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. You want to make sure you do it right, and, in the process of doing it, safeguard the public. If they did anything wrong, you were going to find out about it, because one of the mothers is going to tell.. Meanwhile, Faron Rowden, a beefy bartender, is among 300 locals fed up with waiting for answers. After a 30-day public comment period, the agency will then decide which means of remediation to pursue. Bliss was, and remains, a clever businessman. The whole family chewed tobacco. Sitting at her dining-room table, gazing out across the hillside through her glass patio doors, she begins. She stayed, married, and had two daughters. P.O. The announcement of the new site came only weeks after the EPA and DNR had completed their controversial incineration project at The residents gathered in front of a hotel in Eureka, crowding around the outdoor pool. TBAG started its investigation because it thought there had been a coverup by state and federal authorities on the source and extent of contamination in Missouri, says Taylor. Those memories are particularly present today, the final Saturday of September. However, we dont have any information that would suggest there would be. 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. 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. 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.''. Many have relocated with federal emergency help, but hard-headed "river rats," as they call themselves, are rebuilding modest homes in the "Show Me" state. By 1982, the Missouri attorney generals office had entered negotiations with two other firms, American Can and GK Technologies. "This is the first time anyone ever asked for them," an EPA official told the questioners. Congress created the nation's first major program to clean up hazardous waste dumps only two years ago. Trailers were tossed about like bumper boats. To outsiders, Times Beach residents might as well have bubonic plague. But as you see, Bliss drivers consistently stated that Monsanto was a client.. EPA considers itself blameless. Evening Standard/Getty Images. The EPA and CDC have each published massive documents detailing the many health hazards associated with it. Every year, former residents of Times Beach gather on the site to see old friends, tell stories, and inevitably shed a few tears. She started doing amateur detective work. She still blames me. 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. Most of all missing accountability, Stelzer wrote in a piece titled Why the Times Beach Incinerator Should Be Shut Down.. Yet we know there are people who are not sensitive, because of their lucky genetics. 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 greatest surface concentrations, 169 ppb, are present in a wooded ravine, which is currently being fenced off. An EPA tracking sheet lists 29 such sites. In September 1980, Gov. Bliss has refused to cooperate, Lafser said. Again, it showed that the incinerator was safe, and again, Taylor found flaws in the testing procedure. Would any human being do that?, To be sure, Bliss views himself as a victim in all this. Jerry Springer died Thursday at his home, his family said in a statement shared with Insider.
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