Hi, EV. Loved your page, though the info is very upsetting. Wanted to let you know that your plight is multiplied time and again across the country.

About me: I grew up in Mt. Holly (Exit 5, Jersey Pike)and went to Burlington County College in Pemberton before transfering to Utica College of Syracuse University where I got my journalism degree. I am now an editor at a small-city newspaper (The Oneida Daily Dispatch, Oneida, NY 13440). I live just north of Utica.

While at BCC -- I think it was '85 or thereabouts, I was studying music at the time -- I took a low-level physics course which turned out to actually be a look at environmental science. The prof brought in a reporter for the Burlington County Times who had done investigative reports on several dump sites -- 10, I think -- in Burlington County. Man! Big problems at a site on McGuire AFB in the Jersey Pine Barrens. Jet fuel dumped on the ground, which is all sand, attrition rate is minutes, above the largest fresh-water aquifer on the East Coast.

When the govenment sent men in "moonsuits" to test the fumes coming from the test well at the site, they took one reading and ran for their truck, even though they were suited, and sped away never to retur. At that time there were still no readings available on that site.

Here (I live near Griffis AFB) there was a problem with the active element in airplane de-icer showing up in drinking water. Here's how that was addressed:

The state would not accept test results from a private lab, even though we used the same lab the state DOH (dpt of health)used because, they said, we might inadvertently contaminate the sample. The instructions from the lab, which provided the beaker with instructions (let the water run for 30 seconds, fill beaker, seal and box for shipment) and shipment were so simple that an idiot could have drawn a sample without contaminating it.
"Not enough employees," they said. "What training must we have to qualify to take samples for you?" we asked, glad to lend a hand, if it would help resolve the matter. We were looking at having contaminated water and being unable to pay the huge costs of running water lines from the contaminated city water supply.

They said there were no special qualifiucations. They just wouldn't allow it.

In another incident -- a private dump that I was investigating near Oneida -- ... I can't get into it now. This an E-mail, not a book. Suffice to say that in this instance I found that it at least appeared that the state DOH, Dept. of Environmental Conservation, the state police and others to be conspiring against the surrounding landowners. The circumstancial eviden is enormous in favor of both pollution -- possibly severe and likely quite damaging, if not deadly to living things -- and the conspiracy to cover that up. An employee was fired after he told the dump manager hge would't drive the forks of his lift truck into those chemical drums to dump their contents so the drums could be crushed and save room in the dump. He provided the DEC with a hand-drawn map showing where full drums were burried and the DEC said they would drill test wells to search for them. After the drillings, the DEC said "nothing there." The former employee went to the site and noted that the bores were nowhere near where his map showed burried drums. The DEC said, "Of course not. If there are drums there, we don't want to drill into them." Go figure.

I am a parent, too, and have been fed up for many years with the way government and big (and small) business sleep together. They might as well be in our beds, given the screwing the people are getting.

I wish you all the best in trying to get help, but here, when the DEC said there were no "midnight dumpings" going on, a dump neighbor called the cops (on advice from a state assemblywoman), followed a truck to the dump and locked the gates. The cops came, about an hour later, let the driver go and threatened to lock the neighbor up on a charge of unlawful imprisonment. Eh?

I leave you to decide for yourself what all this means, if anything. I'm sure you will -- if you haven't already -- find the same sorts of strange goings on when fighting your fight. Know that they are happening all over, so when they start branding you a paranoid and your eyewitnesses liars (or claim they didn't realy see what they saw) it is the standard tactic that has been successful across the country.I don't know how to beat it. I hope you can figure a way. If I can help, let me know.

Forgive my typos, as I don't have a spell-check on my EMer nor the time to proof this. I have to start dinner so it's ready when the wife and kids get home.

Keep fighting the good fight. Sincerely, Dale