YOU WILL NOT FIND WHAT YOU REFUSE TO SAMPLE FOR

The corollary of the title above is that polluters can and do affect the conclusions of their sampling simply by insisting on sampling the very same one or two compounds while ignoring other significant toxic compounds that they know are present. The overall idea is to minimize the dollars necessary to properly and fully clean up contamination that they've been the biggest contributers to. While many of all these toxic compounds are present together, often one area will have greater PAH or PCB contamination while another has DDT compounds in great concentrations. Similarly Lindane and other non DDT pesticides can be particularly high in one location while dioxin/furans have their higher concentrations just upstream or downstream. ................................................................................................................ To date I have carefully examined about 100 pages of the 450 pages of data in Appemdix C of the Risk Assessment. These results include sediments in the bottom of the creek, surface soils on the Uniroyal/Lanxess site and creekbank soils above the waterline but along the creek itself. Here are the results: ................................................................................................................................... Surface soils on site: ........28 different samples and positive detections for DDT compounds (i.e. including DDD & DDE).............. ...............................90 different samples and positive detections for dioxin/furan compounds...................... ................................9 different samples and positive detections for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)......... ...............................24 instances where PAHs were listed as NOT being sampled for......................... ................................2 different samples and positive detections for PCBs.......................... ...............................30 different samples with Non-Detect (N.D.) PCB results and high Method detection Limits........ ...............................58 instances where PCBs were listed as NOT being sampled for......................... ................................0 different samples and detections for Pesticides other than DDT................... ............................................................................................................. ....................................................................... Sediments......................34 different samples and positive detections for DDT compounds (i.e. including DDD & DDE)........ ..............................118 different samples and positive detections for dixin/furan compounds..................... ................................1 positive detections for PAHs.................................................. ..............................106 instances where PAHs were listed as NOT being sampled for..................... ...............................55 instances where PCBs were listed as NOT being sampled for..................... ................................2 different samples with Non-Detect (N.D.) PCB results and high Method Detection Limits......... ................................8 different samples and positive detections for pesticides other than DDT.......... ...............................36 instances where pesticides were listed as NOT being sampled for................ ................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................. Creekbank Soils...............137 different samples and positive detections for DDT compounds (includ DDD & DDE)......... ..............................154 different samples and detections for dioxin/furan compounds................................ ................................0 different samples and detections for PAHs............................... ..............................154 instances where PCBs were listed as NOT being sampled for............. ..............................154 instances where pesticides other than DDT were NOT listed as being tested for.......... .................................................................................................................................. .................................................................. Obviously this is a lot of work. Obviously prior to the last TAG meeting last month likely exactly nobody including me had time to thoroughly analyze this data prior to the public but virtual meeting. That was intentionally done as usual.