ARE "HOT SPOTS" TRULY HOT SPOTS IN THE CREEK OR ARE THEY SIMPLY VERY ACCESSIBLE LOCATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN SAMPLED MORE FREQUENTLY?

 

They are more accessible locations to get into the Creek as roads and bridges cross the Creek at these spots. The roads involved are the New Jerusalem Rd., Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Dr. just outside West Montrose. Clearly the consultants working for Lanxess  require vehicles to transport their sampling equipment and more literally to and into the Creek. Now I have long known that CRA and GHD on behalf of Lanxess have no qualms about leaving their thumbs on the scale when they are allegedly taking professional samples of Floodplain Soils, Creekbank Soils and Sediments in the bottom of the Creek. This is why samples should only be taken by truly independent professionals . The opportunities to fudge samples  are simply to easy to get away with.

Now I think that statistically the more samples one takes the greater the spread of results will be. If you only take three samples then it isn't likely that you will hit a home run with an extremely high result. But if you take 50 to 100 samples all from one area then the odds of getting a higher result are greatly increased. 

Other areas of the Creek where only one or two samples are taken are less likely to have a really high number. For example Sediment samples with a criteria for dioxins of .85 pg/g in some of the busiest sample areas mentioned have had results of 300 and 400 pg/g as well as over 1000 pg/g. Funny that Luis and Hadley don't mention those numbers isn't it?

Other sampling scams include using shovels instead of core samplers to get much lower sediment readings for DDT and dioxins. Also phony and inflated Method Detection Limits are an old trick they have used.If the M.D.L. is higher than the criteria then you will obtain phony Non Detects from samples. I'm sure there are other scams possible as well.

The answer to the question in the headline is probably YES and YES !