They didnt take the barrels from the Bliss farm until 1996, when the incinerator was here. Shipping the waste to Coffeyville would have been prohibitively expensive even if it had remained an option, according to one local official. He isnt here to argue that the Times Beach incinerator spewed poison from its smokestack. In Times Beach, an ex-truck driver for hauler Russell Bliss came forward to retrace his route. He was 80. DNR officials described the location of the dump as a ravine, filled 15 feet deep with rusty barrels. Stelzer of the Riverfront Times. Russell Bliss was accused of picking up chemical waste from a plant in Verona in the early 70s, mixing it Dioxin is considered a probable human carcinogen and is known to cause reproductive and immunological health problems in animals and humans. Ive been to Monsanto maybe twenty times, Rollins said. Nowadays, much to its chagrin, all of this tainted history falls under the jurisdiction of the city of Wildwood, which was incorporated in 1995. 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. "What is going to happen to us next?" Jerry Russell It was beautiful., Yes. For three years, investigators were baffled. 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. They wanted more money, Leistner says. Sue OLeary, 76, lived in the Beach for 20 years. 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. "This is a war to stay on the land you worked and paid for. But it would be wrong to think that nature has only now come under attack in this part of West St. Louis County. Officials blame their inaction on scientists who once believed dioxin decays faster than it does. You want to make sure you do it right, and, in the process of doing it, safeguard the public. In 1925, folks who paid $67.50 for a six-month subscription to the old St. Louis Times received a tract in Times Beach. But he was forced to do jail time anyway, on tax-evasion charges, since he didnt report his waste-hauling income to the IRS. Emmett Copeland moved to Times Beach as a teenager in the early 1970s. Why put your tail between your legs and run now after you been living with it so long? People magazine profiled their last stand. This is not to say there is no controversy about dioxin. Jerry Russell Obituary - St. Louis, MO The residents gathered in front of a hotel in Eureka, crowding around the outdoor pool. She started doing amateur detective work. I'm staying until they make me leave.". In 1971, Judy Piatt hired Bliss to spray waste oil on her horse arena, near Moscow Mills, to alleviate dust. The discovery followed an announcement earlier last year of another suburban dioxin site in Ellisville on Lemar Drive. It was so awful. WebJerry Russell Bliss, Age 66 aka Jerry Bliiss Current Address: ETZR Strecker Rd, Ballwin, MO Past Addresses: Eureka MO, Saint James MO +1 more Phone Number: (314) 580- JRRA +3 phones Email Address: n LITE @att.net +2 emails UNLOCK PROFILE Phone & Email (7) All Addresses (4) Family (8) Social (16) Court (5) And More Phone & Email ( 7) She worked as a receptionist at a dental office and became a Times Beach alderwoman in 1981. To outsiders, Times Beach residents might as well have bubonic plague. Tangled Up in Wildwood Ive got letters from EPA and DNR also stating that everything is cool on the property. But Wurm says he doesnt want to discuss the project in detail, fearing his plans will be misrepresented. They all have thyroid disorders. Eventually, they moved into a place of their own and started a family. he asked. See the article in its original context from. An EPA tracking sheet lists 29 such sites. 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. 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. "Then the dioxin scare hit and most said they didn't want to fight it," said Charlie Stone, the park owner. 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. By the time he answered the knock, the harried courier had already departed, leaving an unexpected Federal Express packet on his threshold. He believes that his grandfathers health suffered as a result of the spraying. The couples property is adjacent to the Bliss farm. Almost 100 horses died agonizing deaths at three horse arenas Bliss visited. 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 Leistner has four children, three girls and a boy. 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. At a recent town meeting, angry Times Beachers wondered why, if the chemical is so dangerous, the government didn't supply them with the same protective suits worn by the EPA workers. A boulder sits in the center of her well-manicured front yard, next to an inviting driveway leading to an attached garage. 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. 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.. 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. It would set up a mobile incinerator, a massive metal jungle gym with a giant furnace and a single tall smokestack. WebThe Bliss site is an 11.5 acre tract owned by Jerry Russell Bliss, plus four contiguous properties near Ellisville, Missouri. Another has a rare form of epilepsy. The EPA is a potential defendant in litigation by citizens. St. Louis, MO 63119 ", Larry Collier pledges to hoist an American flag in his yard as a symbol of defiance. JERRY-RUSSELL BLISS v. HAZARDOUS WASTE - Casemine Jerry Lewis Is Still Alive Prosecutors said Bliss wrote 27 checks to fictitious people overstating business expenses, thereby reducing his federal income taxes. 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. Taylors overarching complaint is that the EPAs focus was too narrow. She wants to let people remember the good times, and she knows that she reminds them of the bad ones. Where are they now? Catching up with Mike Bliss If theyre going to develop the Callahan property, then we need to know exactly what took place there. That was a shock., Hes a dioxin skeptic. "I figure anyone who's been contaminated done been contaminated. 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). In both instances, the allegations were not based so much on environmental concerns as they were on the bottom line. Theres plenty of parking, a playground, and lots of picnic tables. Horses became sick, and eventually, Piatt would bury more than 50 of them. 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. Jerry Bliss was the first witness today when the hearing resumed. But it was not until Piatt's horses began dying and her daughter became ill that CDC toxicologists believed something was dreadfully wrong. McClellan: Dioxin and drug mules The EPA received its own test results on December 23 and delivered a Christmas message to the citizens of Times Beach. I believe that the whole area there is littered with contamination pockets, she says. The shop sells Route 66 everythingshot glasses, piggy banks, polo shirtsand metal prints of old business signs. "It's literally like trying to piece together a cold trail," said Bill Hedeman, director of EPA's hazardous waste cleanup program. As the offers improved slightly, many of the holdouts grudgingly gave in. Sid Hammers wife didnt want to stay in Times Beach, but Sid didnt see anything wrong, Leistner says. A flood, thats real. Truckers crudely called him the hemorrhoid with the Polaroid. He wrote ticket after ticket. It's fear of the unknown.". Leistner doesnt go to the reunions. We would invite the press out, and we would spray-paint the prices on the homes. She has a photograph of a house with $15,800 scrawled across the siding. Jerry Springer died Thursday at his home, his family said in a statement shared with Insider. April 28 (UPI) -- The PGA Tour's Mexico Open was briefly interrupted when a swarm of bees sent a group of golfers ducking in the grass. Last Saturday morning, Steve Taylor heard a tapping at his apartment door, a gentle rapping that he hopes to hear no more. I know Monsanto was not a viable defendant in this litigation.. 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. These practices came to the EPA's attention in 1979 and Syntex entered into a consent agreement to clean up the sites. She currently holds the position of Senior Program Manager at The Walt Disney Company. The toxic chemical was contained in waste oil Bliss' company sprayed on roads, parking lots, truck terminals and horse arenas for dust control. As she walks along the path, OLeary points out breaks in the trees. first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), March 25, 1998 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. I figure I was homeless for a year and a half, OLeary says. It appears that it is possible that certain leads werent followed up on because they didnt fit their theory of where this waste came from.. Many in Times Beach were caught in their homes. I think theyve done that.. Then came a 7-Eleven. Obviously I have to depend upon them to do their job and hope that we do ours.. Town Struggles With Toxic Legacy - The Washington Post
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