PARTON 28 


not get the permits to make their activities legal without engaging in the monitoring activities which would make it impractical and ultimately impossible to go on. Their efforts to continue dumping at the site ended with the ultimate decision to close the site effective as of February 1, 1986. Unfortunately, the roller coaster had already started down the track and all the UA could do was hold on and not look down. 

       Ultimately, the University was forced to drill four ground-monitoring wells to a depth of 795 feet below the site and, in the process, opened up Pandora’s box. A September 19, 1984 Memo from Martha A. Anderson, Asst. Director of UA Risk Management, states: 

“On September 18, 1984, Klaus Stetzenbach called to inform us that the soil sample taken from the 710 feet depth at the Page Ranch drill site showed from Dermott Courtney’s analyses 8.7 ppb chloroform and 2.1 ppb TCE contamination. However, no contaminants were found in any other of the samples including samples taken at 700 and 725 feet depths. Dermott has also analyzed water and foam samples which also showed no contaminants. They will now check the grease used on the rig to determine chemicals present in it.” (26) 
       Ultimately, what emerged from the core sampling taken during the drilling of the four monitoring wells only served to make the University’s position more tenuous. During the same sampling event referred to by Martha Anderson, from the core samples of well #1, the following concentrations of chemical waste were found (27): 
Chloroform was found at:
Depth: Concentrations in Soil: Concentrations in Water:
110 feet depth at 0.24 ppb (parts per billion) 0.6 ppb 
120 feet depth at 0.08 ppb  0.2 ppb 
135 feet depth at 0.08 ppb  0.2 ppb 
350 feet depth at 0.08 ppb 0.2 ppb