Interview:
Robert Bilott

Shifting the burden of proof

But this is just the warm up act, I find. We meet via Zoom, Bilott’s plain yellow background giving little away about the man at the centre of the storm.

“We’re seeking to bring a case on behalf of everyone in the United States who has PFAS in their blood,” he tells me. “It’s not to get money, it’s not to get damages for disease, but it’s to say: if you, the companies that are making those chemicals are going to sit back and say there’s not enough data to tell us whether they cause us harm, you companies ought to be paying for independent science to be done to confirm exactly what they’re doing to people.”

He is taking the same tack he used in his previous cases – but this time it is nationwide and it will take in the whole broader PFAS class of substances known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they are designed to never break down. “As you can imagine, all the companies moved to try to have it thrown out of court saying it was unprecedented, nobody’s ever done this, you can’t do this. But the judge denied those motions... and we recently filed papers to try to have it certified as a class action, which the companies are opposing, so that’s an ongoing battle.”

The Ohio River in Parkersburg was polluted with PFOA discharged by chemical maker DuPont. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Easy data

Bilott’s book Exposure portrays the US EPA at best as weak for not tackling the pollution or dealing with DuPont in any meaningful way. He thinks that “to some degree... there is regulatory capture going on” and that DuPont’s close relationship with the EPA was a matter of concern.

“You’ve got a finite number of people at these agencies that are looking at this data. And when you’ve got companies that have unlimited resources, unlimited ability to focus on one or two chemicals in particular, and are able to walk into these agencies and say, ‘we’ve done the work for you here, we’ve drafted up all you need to know about this chemical – here it is’, it’s tempting to rely upon that information, particularly if you don’t know that you should be concerned or doubting that information.”

He says it has happened repeatedly. “It happens particularly in the smaller states that don’t have not only the resources, but don’t necessarily have people that can see how the data has been manipulated.”

Another thing that concerns the lawyer is the amount of time it is taking for the rest of the world to wake up to the dangers of PFAS.

“A lot of folks are not really fully grasping at this point... the true global scope of this. That this is not just a problem at a farm in West Virginia, or some one town along the Ohio River in the States, or even just one country... this is as global as you can get.”

The long struggle has taken its toll on the lawyer. There have been many moments of anxiety and even fear. In the film Dark Waters Ruffalo portrays Bilott in a scene in which it dawns on him that he could be in danger for knowing so much about DuPont’s dealings with PFOA – the firm knew the chemical was toxic and kept the fact hidden from the EPA and the public and continued to discharge it into the river. Following a tough meeting with the firm, Ruffalo is clearly worried as he walks through a quiet parking garage and pauses a while before turning the key in his car ignition.

Bilott remembers it well. “I was in Wilmington Delaware [taking the DuPont chief executive’s deposition], I was staying at the DuPont Hotel and I still vividly remember my parents on the phone the night before and they were asking me: why are you there and who else knows all of this? Who else has all the facts? And realising, frankly, it was probably just me. And at the end of that deposition, realising that the folks there weren’t too happy with me, having shown all this information to their CEO... all of those thoughts were swirling in my head as I walked back to that parking garage... so yes, it was concerning.”

Personal toll

Bilott’s health has taken a battering too. A mysterious neurological disorder struck him in 2008. He suffered tremors and a palsy on his right side which turned into violent shaking convulsions up and down the right side of his body. The episodes would return at unexpected moments, leaving Bilott incapacitated. To this day, doctors are unable to explain why it is happening.

Bilott describes it as an “incredibly stressful” time, waiting for scientific results to come in that could make or break his case while at the same time “the entire US economy was collapsing”.

Then there was the “uncertainty of this case that was costing a lot of money, a lot of people are counting on me, and I’m getting calls about people getting sick, about people dying in that community, waiting for this information and that’s around the time these neurological issues developed”.

That case is over but the symptoms remain. “I’d like to be able to say they’re gone completely. I can’t. I don’t know if we’ll ever understand exactly what all it is, but it’s under control, at least I can say that. I’ve never figured out exactly what that was.”

Bilott appears well at least and it is clear his taste for the fight is undiminished.
“It’s pretty much what I do every day. It’s been incredibly encouraging to see... more people are recognising this issue or at least starting to recognise the scope of it and to see the change that can happen.”

He hopes it will encourage others to act. “One person standing up and speaking out even against odds that you think are insurmountable – one of the biggest companies in the world, taking on systems, scientific systems and regulatory processes that are all stacked against you – it can happen and things can change and hopefully people are inspired by that.”

Bilott’s come a long way since he was approached by Earl Tennant, who passed away in 2009. “I think he would be incredibly proud that we got this story out,” says Bilott. “That was one of his main concerns, he wanted to make sure that not only were his neighbours made aware and protected from this, but that everybody knew what happened here.

“I think that, knowing Earl though, and his family, they would be still not satisfied until we see that this stuff stops being emitted into the environment. We’re dealing with what’s out there in our environment and what’s there in people’s blood and we’re making sure that the people who did this to us are held responsible. We’ve been able to do that for at least the people along the Ohio River, and we’re still working on getting that done for everybody else.”