A review of official documents shows the University of Arizona and/or Turner Laboratories withheld results of a water quality test that confirmed the federally regulated contaminant toluene was found in groundwater sampled from beneath the Page Trowbridge radioactive/toxic waste dump. 

The facts show that the UA withheld the test results from ADEQ then concocted a cover story to hide their action. 

Withholding the test result allowed the UA to claim that contaminants detected in water samples taken from a monitoring well April 26, 2000 was "an anomaly," and did not indicate that Page-Trowbridge may be leaking to groundwater. 

Withholding test results is a violation of federal law.

Facts Contradict UA Story

According to the UA, two tests are required to confirm the finding of contaminants. 

Even though test results at Turner Labs show there were two tests run on the April 26 samples and that both tests detected toluene and other contaminants, the UA continues to claim only one test was performed. 

The UA claims that because only one test was run, the finding of toluene and other contaminants cannot be confirmed.

According to the UA, the reason only one test run on the April samples was because Turner Laboratories didn't have the duplicate sample for Monitoring Well #5. 

The UA story is contradicted by the chain of custody form which shows that the UA gave the duplicate sample for Monitoring Well #5 to Turner Labs.

Manufacturing The Anomaly

Because the UA claims there was only one test on the April 26 samples, the UA claims to have made a second trip to Page-Trowbridge May 17, 2000 to obtain water for another set of tests. The UA claims to have re-sampled Monitoring Well #5 on this trip. Tests on this water failed to detect contaminants.

Since the finding of toluene had already been confirmed in two tests, this second sampling run was completely unnecessary. 

Tests on the second set of samples, supposedly taken from monitoring well #5,  showed no contaminants allowing the UA to maintain that the finding of toluene in the April sample was "an anomaly."