Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont
Robert Bilott
A book-length account for readers who want more detail.
1998–2017 · Parkersburg, West Virginia, and the Ohio River valley, Ohio
Robert Bilott & the DuPont/PFOA case
Environment & corporate accountability
Photo credit
Taft Law / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped/resized. Adaptations use the same license.Photographs are cropped to fit. Photo dates and original images are available through the source credits.
Attorney Robert Bilott began representing a West Virginia farmer in 1998 and uncovered records concerning PFOA contamination near DuPont’s Washington Works plant. The wider litigation and environmental enforcement brought scrutiny to drinking-water exposure and the reporting of chemical risks. His work is dramatized in Dark Waters.
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The Story
When1998–2017
WhereParkersburg, West Virginia, and the Ohio River valley, Ohio
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Dark Waters (2019)
Todd Haynes · Mark Ruffalo · 2019
A dramatized interpretation; compare it with the reporting.
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Focus Features · interview clip
Robert Bilott and Mark Ruffalo on The View
An interview clip about the real case and Dark Waters, not a full movie or full television episode.
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Books
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Books
1 itemsRobert Bilott
Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont
Bilott’s memoir of the investigation and litigation. A firsthand companion account to the events portrayed in Dark Waters.
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Movies & TV
Movies
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Todd Haynes · Mark Ruffalo · 2019
Dark Waters (2019)
Dramatized account of Bilott’s investigation. Official distributor page with film details and watch-at-home options.
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Audiobooks
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Audiobook
Exposure
Unabridged
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Edition checked 2026-10-12
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Fiction Work
Fiction Work
Browse all →Scripted stories and fictional inspirations. Scenes, characters, and dialogue can differ from the record.
Todd Haynes · Mark Ruffalo · 2019
Dark Waters (2019)
Dramatized account of Bilott’s investigation. Official distributor page with film details and watch-at-home options.
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Social Media
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News & Reading
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Google Books · Catalog / Availability
Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont
Robert Bilott. Related reading for Robert Bilott & the DuPont/PFOA case. Book information and any pages made available by Google Books; this is not a promise of full-text access.
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Everand · Subscription Access
Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont — Audiobook
Robert Bilott. Related reading for Robert Bilott & the DuPont/PFOA case. Check the current subscription terms and available sample; trial offers are not permanent free access.
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Reading Access Notes
Search reviewed 2026-09-16. Sources searched: Google Books, Internet Archive, Open Library, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Magazine, The Atavist Magazine, Google Books (case/title search), Scribd, Everand, OverDrive and hoopla (combined title search). Search indexing is incomplete; this is not an exhaustive list of the web. Access can change by edition, country and library membership. Library loans may require sign-in or a wait. Everand titles may need a paid subscription; a trial is not permanent free access. Scribd documents are third-party uploads, with uploader details noted where checked. We link to source pages and write our own descriptions rather than reproducing copyrighted books.
A separate Texas Monthly search was blocked by the publisher’s automated-access rules and could not be verified.
News & reporting
1 itemsTIME · 2019
The true story behind Dark Waters
Reporting on Bilott’s investigation and the film’s real-world background.
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Newspaper clippings
0 itemsFeatured newspaper clipping
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Court & Files
Court records & documents
1 itemsAbout these sources
Documents are labeled by type and scope. Allegations in filings are not findings of guilt. This collection is not the complete case file.
Court document
DuPont consent agreements and final orders
Primary agency enforcement documents concerning failures to report PFOA risk information. Administrative orders, not the complete civil litigation docket.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Positive Outcome
Positive Outcome
1 itemsAbout these sources
Documented laws, advocacy and reforms. Listing a change does not claim it is effective or universally supported.
Federal environmental enforcement · EPA
2005: EPA settlement over PFOA reporting
EPA’s 2005 settlement addressed DuPont’s failure to report information about PFOA risks. This is a documented enforcement outcome, not a claim that one case created every later PFAS regulation.
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