WebHIGGINS, Chief Justice. To say that dioxin has never caused anythingI saw it wipe out a whole community, she says. Leistner grew up in Valley Park and moved to Times Beach in December 1956, at age 18. Clean ups at both places have remained at a standstill for several months now. It took until the early 90s for the state of Missouri to finally acquire all of the property in Times Beach. She had a brand-new leather jacket that had gotten dirty in the flood. I figure I was homeless for a year and a half, OLeary says. He faced a maximum of nine years in prison. One of her adult sons has since contracted a lupus-like disease, says Jordan. 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. I believe that the whole area there is littered with contamination pockets, she says. Stuff flooded in for us to have Christmas like you wouldnt believe, she says. If theres any dioxin left, it doesnt seem to bother the wildlife. Former company officials said their warnings were ignored. She traveled the country to countless rodeos, barrel races, and team ropings, often with her husband and daughter by her side. A boulder sits in the center of her well-manicured front yard, next to an inviting driveway leading to an attached garage. Again, it showed that the incinerator was safe, and again, Taylor found flaws in the testing procedure. There are few records. Join Facebook to connect with Jerry Russell and others you may know. Taylor says he is unsure whether he will cooperate with the EPAs request. He is now 78 and lives just off I-44 near Cuba. He didnt want to look at all this shit. Steve Taylor (at left) never lived in Times Beach, but he did spend time at one of the horse farms where Bliss sprayed. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began warning people in low-lying areas that a severe flood was coming. Teachers made them sit at the front of class, away from the rest of the students, in case they were contagious. WebJERRY-RUSSELL BLISS, INC., Petitioner-Appellant, v. HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT COMMISSION, et al., Respondents. (Burford would resign a month later, amid allegations of mismanagement of the Superfund program.). Why were they in such a hurry to clean up the Callahan site? Dioxin is known to cause damage to the human reproductive and immunological systems. Houses were ripped from their foundations. They had rebuilt before, and they would do it again. The more you smoke, the worse it is for your health. Copeland made friends with a kid who went by the name Boner T. Bunch. Bliss has accounted for spreading at least 7,000 gallons of dioxin-contaminated oil across the state, but officials fear there was much more. asked Bill Keffer, the beleaguered EPA engineer in command here. 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. Of 15 confirmed dioxin sites in Missouri, five were contaminated by waste oil laced with dioxin from a southwest Missouri chemical plant for which Mr. Bliss hauled wastes in 1971. The mostly pleasant trails run north by the railroad tracks and then take a right along the river. On this day, fuzzy dice are 35 percent off. Dioxin levels here are lower, but wider spread, officials said. Waste was tracked to the Verona plant. The park is nice enough. That was a shock., Hes a dioxin skeptic. The Vietnam veterans got a huge settlement, Taylor says. The walls smelled. The oil, it turned out, was laced with dioxin. 20,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD. How deep did it go down? The news, on the other hand, broke on the 22nd of December, with no mention of any accident. 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. That paved the way for final approval of the buyout. Although the state hastened to dispose of hundreds of barrels at the Callahan site in the early 1980s, the EPA did not close its case on the property until last September. There are no signs to warn these park users that they are trekking through a hazardous waste site. Trailers were tossed about like bumper boats. Everyone in attendance says that if the town were reopened tomorrow, they would move back in a heartbeat. The following year, in November 1982, the city clerk received a phone call from a reporter. There are so many bad stories that I cheated people out of their money, Leistner says, her tone turning sharp. Monsanto is where we got the pesticide, the stuff that I thought smelled like bug spray. A missing page, a missing date, a missing signature. It would set up a mobile incinerator, a massive metal jungle gym with a giant furnace and a single tall smokestack. In 1994, the Post-Dispatch reported a dispute involving homebuyers in Turnberry Place subdivision, which abuts the Bliss farm. "This is the first time anyone ever asked for them," an EPA official told the questioners. The mixture is used for dust 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. Some folks arent sure its even there. Shipping the waste to Coffeyville would have been prohibitively expensive even if it had remained an option, according to one local official. Some streets here measured 100 parts per billion--100 times higher than the level the CDC considers dangerous. She currently holds the position of Senior Program Manager at The Walt Disney Company. 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. Every year, former residents of Times Beach gather on the site to see old friends, tell stories, and inevitably shed a few tears. Jerry Hatcher, the town's heavy equipment dealer, lost a sale when a customer found dust on a tractor tire. Scapegoats seem to abound here. "If they had, I wouldn't have taken it. 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. Just about everything seems out of place, even the stuff that says Route 66 on it. 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. In the center of the park is a large mound where the contaminated houses were buried, since only soil was burned. The next day, he was sure that somebody was doing it to get even with him, Leistner says. Rock 'n' roll's first great wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis the singer and pianist nicknamed "The Killer" has died. Now, we might be veering slightly toward conspiracy territory, but again, Taylor shows restraint, making associations rather than accusations. "But such a huge amount of dirt is not feasible to burn. No one can answer the questions the people of Times Beach are asking. Using a microphone, Burford announced to the people outside that the Superfund would buy their homes at fair market value. Its very confusing, the fact that theyve kind of lumped these properties together yet dealt with them differently. Jerry Springer died Thursday at his home, his family said in a statement shared with Insider. Three parties Jean Callahan, Kisco Co. and Bliss refused to pay for the cleanup. 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 no. Others drove out through the rising water, trying to follow the roads they couldnt see. 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. They were in there in 1981, pulling out barrels and treating them differently from the rest of the waste. Taylors overarching complaint is that the EPAs focus was too narrow. Petitioner asserts: denial deprived petitioner of due process Catching up with Mike Bliss. EPA lab tests Dec. 23 confirmed dioxin on several Times Beach roadsides 100 times higher than that. The trees are thin, which helps visibility. It was safe. A dozen rabbits' ears were swabbed with a 300 ppb dioxin solution taken from contaminated soil residue. But she was determined to have Christmas. The younger Bliss is appealing the denial of his request for a hauling permit from the Missouri Hazardous Waste Management Commission. Waiting proved to be a bad move. Our approach is not to destroy it, but to assure public exposure can be limited" to healthy levels. They put up drywall in her house. She was a wonderful friend, as evidenced by her many visitors. Meanwhile, Faron Rowden, a beefy bartender, is among 300 locals fed up with waiting for answers. Truckers crudely called him the hemorrhoid with the Polaroid. He wrote ticket after ticket. Entrepreneurs like Truman Nickel, however, are busy hauling away beat-up mobile homes for resale in Alabama and Louisiana with the EPA's blessing. 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. The plant was owned by a subsidiary of Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the eastern Missouri Superfund clean up. Would any human being do that?, To be sure, Bliss views himself as a victim in all this. Taylor is a man called to causes. Into it would be loaded all of the contaminated soil, not just from Times Beach, but from dioxin sites across Missouri. He simply has questions, questions that he believes were left unanswered by the EPAs reluctance to be forthcoming. One residence has had to be evacuated because of interior contamination. OLeary (at right) came back to her house as soon as she could after the flood. The first offers were made that month. Times Beach, which involved burning over 265,000 tons of dioxin contaminated waste from more than two dozen sites in eastern Missouri. The activist points out that no PCBs were found in southwest Missouri in the tanks at the Verona, Mo. 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'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. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Evelyn J. Bliss and is located at 149 Strecker Road, Ballwin, MO 63011. 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. Each gap represents a former road. A flood, thats real. The residents gathered in front of a hotel in Eureka, crowding around the outdoor pool. It was described as a 500-year flood. 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. But what we want is a modicum of honesty.. 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. 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 person told him he could take his tools, but hed have to leave the supplies. This site that was discovered over in Ellisville was completely new information, he adds. Now officials worry that they may never find the 87 places reportedly used for dumping of dioxin-contaminated waste oil. 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). A few days after it reopened, the city received the results from its soil tests. As these families were being made their offers, they were taking the money and running, Leistner says. The kids all played together, she says, and we had birthday parties and invited all the neighbor kids. She misses being able to ride her bike to the mailbox or the store. Our city adopted a resolution asking them to remedy this problem as quickly and efficiently as possible, says LaGarce. Remedial action is mandated by the EPA in a residential setting at one ppb or higher. Piatt's daughter became ill, one of nine people to get sick. Dog missing for 26 days walked 40 miles to his former home. The requests to develop these two properties have dredged up a litany of questions that have never been adequately answered by EPA officials or by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). "Bliss told me it couldn't be in the oil because he didn't haul chemicals.". Were hesitant to give this information to an agency that we feel is corrupt. 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. WebJERRY RUSSELL BLISS, INC., Petitioner-Appellant and Cross-Appellee, v. THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD et al., Respondents-Appellees and Cross-Petitioners. Eventually several hazardous-waste sites would be identified in the area by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They also had to spend several weeks working on the citys road crew. Natalie M. Bliss, 58, passed peacefully on Tuesday, February 2, 2021, in her home with her husband and daughter by her side. A guard and a caution sign were posted at the entrance to town, a bridge that came across from the high side of the river, to keep people out. Her nine siblings have all lived healthy lives. We have to determine what there motivation is.. Of particular note was a chemical plant in Verona, which had been used to produce Agent Orange and hexachlorophene, an ingredient used in soap. Theres a bumper sticker that says Ignorance is Bliss., They tell stories about the flood. It was nearly a week before people could return to begin the daunting task of rebuilding. Bliss disposed of this waste in various ways. February 13, 2022 1 Min Read. 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. 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. He was 92. When he resigned, Leistner became acting mayor. She was loyal, selfless, honest, and witty. The company's filing status is listed as Voluntarily Dissolved and its File Number is 00205495. It had been there for a decade without harming them. 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. Its clean as a whistle, says Wurm of the Callahan property. Within a couple of days, cats, dogs, and birds in the vicinity began to drop dead. They didnt have anything. She took photos, dispatching them along with names of chemical companies and sites he visited to EPA and state officials in 1972. In September 1980, Gov. 67115. 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. Many in Times Beach were caught in their homes. As of now, no specifics about Russel Flowers involvement in the accident have emerged on the internet. The state presented its evidence in the case at an hearing in January, and Bliss' defense of the The same goes for rolling around in dioxin. 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. Horses became sick, and eventually, Piatt would bury more than 50 of them. Surveyors have also staked out a section of the park near Jordans residence with bright orange flags. She compiled a list of where Bliss and his employees collected waste and where they disposed of it. 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. The full-page advertisements boasted that the sweltering heat and discomfort of the city are unknown at Times Beach.. 1986), the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the decision of a lower court upholding an My dad drove up on a little concrete pad and said, The water might get the tires wet. Shoot. 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. Shea is being dismissed as an alarmist. Taylors list of objections goes on and on. This time Teasdale made the plea with the TV news cameras rolling. Authorities were tipped in November to the spraying in Times Beach, much as they were tipped off earlier to 15 other contaminated Missouri sites. Nebraska students toss water balloons for Guinness World Record. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. Thats why just about every physician will tell his or her patient to stop smoking cigarettes, Schecter says. To pad the citys coffers, it stationed a cop with a radar gun out on the highway. Her house had been ravaged. "This is a war to stay on the land you worked and paid for. 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. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. 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. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. There are probably a lot of people who are unaware, she adds. The other St. Louis companies used PCBs or other hazardous substances for different purposes.. If I had Monsanto as a potential defendant, and had the evidence on them, I certainly would bring them in as a party. This is especially true for 2,3,7,8tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, which is the most toxic and the one found at Times Beach. April 28 (UPI) -- An isolated private island off the coast of Scotland is for sale with an asking price of about $188,000. 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. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Missouri's problem is different from New York's Love Canal, which Hooker Chemical used as a toxic dump for dioxin until it was discovered in 1978. Nobody knew it then, of course, but that oil contained massive levels of dioxin, far more than the oil sprayed at Times Beach. Back in 1982, she called Bliss and asked him, point-blank, whether he had sprayed Times Beach with dioxin. Almost 100 horses died agonizing deaths at three horse arenas Bliss visited. For three years, investigators were baffled. Share your thoughts and memories of Natalie. They wanted to paint, but she wouldnt let them, told them to go help somebody else. The discovery followed an announcement earlier last year of another suburban dioxin site in Ellisville on Lemar Drive. This is not to say there is no controversy about dioxin. If the city allows W.J. Some of it, he buried in drums. In the case of Terre Du Lac, the tracking sheet shows a DNR investigator determined that Bliss had oiled the roads on at least one occasion in 1976. The document further states that prior oiling had occurred though (it is) uncertain who did the earlier oiling. Based on this information alone, the DNR concluded that due to the late time period of oiling, sampling for TCDD (dioxin) appears unwarranted. The EPA agreed by ruling that no further action appears necessary at the site. ", Larry Collier pledges to hoist an American flag in his yard as a symbol of defiance. Leistner has four children, three girls and a boy. 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. Congress created the nation's first major program to clean up hazardous waste dumps only two years ago. Wildwood currently zones the Strecker Road properties as nonurban, which requires a minimum lot size of 3 acres. Every morning, Bunch would come to the donut shop. 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. But it was not until Piatt's horses began dying and her daughter became ill that CDC toxicologists believed something was dreadfully wrong. 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. . TBAG had opposed the project, saying it was unsafe to human health and the environment. The shop sells Route 66 everythingshot glasses, piggy banks, polo shirtsand metal prints of old business signs. In Times Beach, an ex-truck driver for hauler Russell Bliss came forward to retrace his route. But the company itself would still pay Russell (Bliss). STELZER. By 1982, the Missouri attorney generals office had entered negotiations with two other firms, American Can and GK Technologies. Some were rescued in boats. Ultimately, there is probably more than one correct answer to that question. 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. So Ill just let the record of decision stand for itself, OK? She started doing amateur detective work. Stelzer of the Riverfront Times. Leistner holds her own grudges. Worst of all, Piatts two young daughters, who played in the arena as if it were a sandbox, fell ill. Doctors and veterinarians were stumped, but Piatt suspected the spraying was to blame. Seven families sued the responsible Realtor, and they were awarded a cumulative settlement of more than $500,000. These days, Bliss, whos in his late seventies, is still finding unique ways to make a buck. She is survived by her devoted Its a difficult position for the city, says Joe Vujnich, Wildwoods director of parks and planning. Joseph P. Teasdale wrote a letter to Monsanto chairman John W. Hanley, requesting that the St. Louis-based chemical company pay for the cleanup. Fourteen calves either have been stillborn or died shortly after birth, and last week another tumor-riddled cow was slaughtered for dioxin testing by the Food and Drug Administration. DNR officials described the location of the dump as a ravine, filled 15 feet deep with rusty barrels. Nowadays, much to its chagrin, all of this tainted history falls under the jurisdiction of the city of Wildwood, which was incorporated in 1995. Essentially, Hall is asserting confidence in the clean up before it has started. It would be better to err on the side of safety, says Shea, than risk exposing people to more hazardous waste by digging foundations on the Callahan property and inadvertently excavating a heretofore undetected layer of toxic waste. In Times Beach, the dioxin level was more than 100 parts per billion. Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers owner who shepherded the NBA team to 10 championships from the Showtime dynasty of the 1980s to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday. The highest measure of contamination found at McDonnell Park is 275 parts per billion (ppb). Jerry Bliss, 26, said he should not be penalized for the actions of his father. The concern's application was denied in early 1981, but Mr. Bliss has continued operating pending the appeal hearing that began here Monday morning. Whether the 88-year-old wants to be is another story.