directly in front of then-UA President Henry Koffler’s office. When he arrived for work that morning, he was joined in the elevator by two activists and a news reporter, who queried him on his feelings about a load of manure dumped in his yard, and how that might relate to the feelings of Oracle residents.

       Ultimately, the ADHS acquiesced to the UA’s strategy. They separated the Closure plan from the Post-Closure plan. This omission of Oversight ensured that the concerns of the Oracle residents in regards to the testing of the soils, vandose monitoring, and a promised removal of containerized toxic chemicals buried since 1983 would never come to pass. The importance of vandose monitoring is that it would allow immediate notification when contaminants first entered the soil directly below the toxic waste cells. Ultimately, the only protection that the “approved” groundwater monitoring wells offered was to tell Oracle residents when the toxins had already reached their groundwater at 645 feet below the site. 

       Frank Pierson and Mary Ellen Kazda of Oracle wrote a final letter of exasperation and concern to Ted Williams, Director of the Arizona Dept. of Health Services, dated April 6, 1987 (75). It reads as follows in its entirety: 

“You should be aware that the Page Ranch Closure Plan currently under consideration by your Department is hopelessly flawed. It does not protect the interests of Pinal County residents. The University of Arizona, through the exercise of sheer force, has used Pinal County as a toxic dumping ground for forty years. President Koffler, in order to calm the citizenry, lied about the University’s plans for removing and monitoring the dump. Your Department, through ignorance, inexperience and/or incompetence, is supporting the University in its deceit. The residents of Oracle drove a much harder bargain regarding closure, cleanup and monitoring than the so-called regulators. Your Department is making our efforts to look out for our own interests difficult, if not impossible. This is a pathetic