The permit for the Page- Trowbridge dump establishes conditions for its future management of the facility.  The residents allege the post closure plan is inadequate and filed an appeal to that effect.

The hearing of the appeal was held in Phoenix on Jan 29.

Prior to the hearing residents made two requests for a continuance in the matter and both were denied. Among the reasons cited was to provide time inspect documents residents say were withheld in violation of the Public Records Act.

The withheld documents were discovered when Web Parton reviewed a letter from Stephan Wetherell, an attorney with the Arizona Attorney General's office representing ADEQ.

Wetherell's letter enumerated the documents he intended to offer in evidence at the hearing. One document was an ADEQ folder containing correspondence on the permit over the last ten years.

Parton published an extensive 400-page report on the history of Page-Trowbridge in August of 1999.  The report is based on official documents, and its size is due to the fact it includes copies of referenced documents. Many of the documents were obtained via requests for public records.  The Parton report, sans exhibits, is available on-line at http://www.poisonedwells.com/PartonReport/cover.htm. 

Intrigued by the mention of a folder of correspondence, Parton drove to the ADEQ offices in Phoenix and looked at its contents.  Parton's cursory examination revealed documents that had not been turned over to him in response to a request for public records made during research for his report.

This is not the first time that documents have been withheld from Parton.  The UA withheld a map indicating that disposal of radioactive waste occurred prior to 1962, the year that the UA was awarded a permit to dump nuclear waste at the Page-Trowbridge dump.

The UA, which owns the dump and any liability arising from it, has consistently maintained that no dumping occurred prior to 1962.

However, the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency recently initiated an investigation into unauthorized disposal of radioactive in the Page-Trowbridge area prior to 1962. 

Word of the ARRA investigation came in a packet mailed to Oracle residents in November. The packet contained the response from ADEQ to comments from Oracle residents to the post closure plan for the dump. 

One of the comments in the packet alludes to possible criminal activity by the UA in their management of the dump.  The response from ADEQ reads, "Hyperbole aside, if you have evidence of any criminal activity by the UA, then please report that to the Attorney General's office."

A year ago this month, residents submitted evidence to the AG's office in support of their allegation that the UA covered up test results confirming the detection of contaminants in groundwater samples taken from beneath Page-Trowbridge.

Last April, Kevin Mann, of the of the Arizona Attorney General's Office, informed the residents he was in charge of the investigation and said he would inform them by letter if the matter was forwarded for prosecution. 

There has been no other communication from the AG's office on the matter. 

The letter requesting an investigation and the evidence provided to the AG may be read on-line here.  An overview of the case may be read here: 

At the Jan 29 hearing, Parton and SaddleBrooke resident Jack Walden made opening statements, again requesting a continuance in the matter. 

After Tully denied the requests, the hearing proceeded with Wetherell putting on one witness and introducing the Post Closure Plan into evidence. 

Tully will rule within 20 days.