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THIRD INTERIM REPORT TO THE SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS REGARDING THE ACTIVITIES OF FORWARD, INC. By Baier Agronomy, Inc. April 30, 1982 This report has been prepared under the direction of Dwight C. Baier, a registered engineer and certified agronomist and soil scientist with more than thirty years' experience of research with and predicting the movement of various chemicals in and through the unsaturated zone .(vadose zone) of soils. Dwight Baier was the Agri- cultural Water Quality Specialist for the California State Water Re- sources Control Board for several years. At the outset, it is necessary to describe the physical features of the Forward, Inc. dump site, as understood by Baler Agronomy, Inc. (BAI) from descriptions and a site sketch that BAX received from the San Joaquin Local Health District. BAX has been denied any phy- sical access to the site, as well as any descriptions, measurements, or capacities from Forward, Inc. The sketch of the site is attached herewith as appendix A. BAX's understanding is that there are three main disposal areas, These are the Grade I Trenches to the northeast of the site, the Grade 2 Sanitary Landfill immediately south of the Grade I Trenches, and the solar evaporation ponds west of the Grade 2 Sanitary Landfill. This report will concern -itself mainly with the Grade I Trenches (hereafter, trenches) and the Solar Evaporation Ponds. (hereafter, ponds) According to descriptions by the staff members of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Val- ley Region,(hereafter, Regional Board) the trenches are several hun- dred feet long, with sloping sides so that the bottom is about 30 feet across. These trenches are for the purpose of burying Grade I wastes. Grade I wastes commonly contain substances that are desig- nated as toxic by the State of California. Naturally, it is import- ant that these toxic substances not leak from the trenches into the groundwater system* either now or forever more, lest they poison the water supply of San Joaquin residents. According to Mr. Lee Hall,, Registered Sanitarian with the San Joaquin Local Health District, *Groundwater system, as used in this report:, means the vadose zone as well as the groundwater table itself. once pollutants have pene- trated the surface, their arrival at the water table, and their pollution of someone's water supply, is merely a matter of time. 1