A Compelling Tale with Implications for Research: Robert Bilott’s Plenary Talk at WCEH2019

by Lisa Mighetto*

Robert Bilott is a partner at the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio where he has practiced environmental law and litigation for more than twenty-eight years. He has been selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America for several years running and has received numerous honors for his work in environmental law and litigation. Rob is a former chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Environmental Law Committee and a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida (BA) and the Ohio State University College of Law (JD, cum laude). In 2017, Rob received the international Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his years of work on PFOA. The title of his Plenary at WCEH 3 was: “The Emerging Awareness of Worldwide PFAS Contamination and Related Legal, Regulatory, and Scientific Challenges” 

Robert Bilott’s plenary talk at the world congress in Brazil can be described in one word: riveting. It featured many of the elements of a good suspense tale, including mystery, tenacious investigation, corporate malfeasance, and character development. Bilott, an attorney with the Cincinnati law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, detailed more than two decades of litigation against the DuPont Chemical Company while narrating his transformation from corporate lawyer to environmental activist.

Now famous for exposing DuPont’s history of toxic contamination, Bilott described his initial naivete when a West Virginia farmer approached him in 1998 with reports of cattle on his property afflicted with hideous deformities. At first Bilott assumed that toxic substances released in the area would have been identified, monitored, and regulated by government agencies. Eventually he learned that this was not the case, discovering that regulatory agencies seemed unconcerned that the chemical company’s landfill had discharged perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a toxic substance used to make Teflon coating, into a local creek. As Bilott explained, some of the contamination of land and water predated the existence of regulations – and even after the formation of environmental agencies PFOA remained unregulated.

Bilott’s story, now the subject of a book and a recently-released Hollywood movie called Dark Waters (2019), includes much that could inform and inspire environmental history researchers. First, he demonstrated the importance of persistence. DuPont’s attorneys buried his office in records during the discovery process – a common tactic in such cases. Bilott and his staff had to dig through thousands of seemingly irrelevant documents before finding references to PFOA – and he had to consult a chemist to learn more about the substance. Although Bilott had experience with Superfund litigation (hazardous waste site clean-up), he had not encountered PFOA before this point. Later he mused that references to this toxic chemical could easily have been missed in the voluminous boxes of documents.

It sounds like Bilott’s case turned on historical data – and another important takeaway from his talk was the significance of collecting and storing the evidence. After the initial case spurred additional lawsuits, DuPont claimed that its records were lost or unavailable – but Bilott had kept the documents from the first case and was able to continue supplying evidence. He in fact contacted several U.S. state and federal agencies offering to turn over records; some were responsive and some were not.

Bilott also expressed frustration at DuPont spinning off subsidiary companies to avoid future liability. The fragmentation of the corporation compounded the challenge of obtaining and keeping records – and indicates the importance of researching company histories to document early practices that resulted in toxic contamination.

Bilott left the audience with a chilling thought: in the end, this is a story about dispersing a “forever chemical” that is now located inside all of us. While the litigation unfolded in the United States, the story has global consequences and worldwide significance. One topic that was not explored in much depth – and which might be considered for future environmental history conferences – is how environmental historians could become involved in legal processes, serving as researchers (our familiarity with the history of regulatory agencies could help locate stores of little-known records) and as expert witnesses (providing essential context about the regulatory environment as well as the history of toxic contamination, corporate awareness of toxicity, and the impact on humans over time). Bilott’s willingness to engage in many conversations for days after his talk demonstrated that attorneys and environmental history scholars have much to say to one another, making this event was one of the highlights of the conference.

For more information, see:

Nathaniel Rich, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” The New York Times Magazine, January 6, 2016.

Robert Billot, Exposure. Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont, Atria Books (2019)

*Lisa Mighetto is a historian based in Seattle, Washington. She is affiliate faculty at the University of Washington-Tacoma and an advisory board member of the National Parks Conservation Association. She served as the program committee co-chair for the Environmental History World Congress, held in Florianópolis, Brazil in July 2019. She tweets at @LisaMighetto