SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE FILE 2

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David M.Boyers,Esq. November 11,2004 Page 3 accompany the requesting party onsite. Here,Stratus Environmental did not request and, consequently,did not obtain permission to access ExxonMobil's wells for the well inspection. As such,ExxonMobil was denied its right to deny access and an opportunity to accompany Stratus Environmental onsite, should access have been granted.f_Thus,the Stratus Report is the product of an improper investigation and,therefore,the Stratus Report and Palisades'July 28,2004 letter discussing it should be excluded from the Record or,at a minimum,disregarded by the Board. Bingham McCutchen LLP bingham.com In addition,the Board should exclude Palisades'July 28,2004 letter because it sets forth unfounded conclusions. First,the results in the Stratus Report do not support the conclusions reached in Palisades'July 28,2004 letter. This letter states that a faulty expanding plug at VEW3 may have resulted in the well acting as a vertical conduit for gasoline surface spills to enter the subsurface. However,the Stratus Report states that the tops of the two well casings in the VEW3 well box were"protected with expanding well caps and locks"and,thus,contrary to the conclusions reached in Palisades'July 28,2004 letter,shows that VEW3 had a secured seal. In fact,the"%inch of water. . .standing inside the well box"confirms that the seal was in good working order. Clearly,the results in the Stratus Report do not support the conclusions advanced by Palisades. Furthermore,the environmental testing conducted at the Site does not support the conclusions reached in Palisades'July 28,2004 letter. As discussed in section(I)(B)(1) of ExxonMobil's July 15,2003 response to Palisades'petition in this matter, environmental testing of VEW3 shows unauthorized releases from Palisades'UST system. Specifically,groundwater samples collected at VEW3 show increased concentrations of methyl tertiary butyl ether("MtBE")and tertiary butanol("TBA") since March 2002,which strongly suggest a leak from Palisades'UST system. Similarly, the Tracer test results from May 7,2003 also demonstrate a failed UST system. Additionally,the constituent levels in VEW3 samples show that gasoline surface spills clearly did not cause these increased MtBE and TBA concentrations. If gasoline surface spills entering the subsurface via a faulty expanding plug were the source of these increased concentrations of MtBE and TBA in VEW3,concentrations of benzene, toluene,ethyl benzene and xylenes would also have increased. Groundwater samples collected from this well in March 2002 show that this was not the case. To the contrary, the benzene level was only 12.0 micrograms per liter("ug/L")while the MtBE level shot up to 30,000 ug/L.' Accordingly,environmental testing at VEW3 also shows that the 2 The Stratus Report does not indicate whether or not Stratus Environmental sampled the wells. However, if sampling occurred,ExxonMobil was also deprived of an opportunity to obtain split samples. 'Attached hereto,and as Exhibit 2 to the Declaration of Ted Moise submitted with ExxonMobil's July 15,2003 response to Palisades'petition,is a copy of a table prepared by ETIC Engineering,Inc. in 2003 that reflects the groundwater samples collected from (Footnote Continued on Next Page.) LN40278383.2