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Mr. Phil Dawson <br /> August 26, 2009 <br /> Page 3 <br /> DLA and its contractor contend that site-specific lithologic data show <br /> discontinuity in the sands. <br /> The State considered the perceived discontinuities in the sand as a possibility, but point <br /> out that the hydraulic communication that DLA observed during the pumping tests show <br /> continuity in the sands. For example, the pumping test on EW056A showed that <br /> hydraulic communication exists between this well and LM174AU, located greater than <br /> 240 feet to the northeast. DLA acknowledged this by making the following statement on <br /> page 3-8 of the Dieldrin Mass Removal Pump Test Report, included as Appendix B of <br /> the FS Report: <br /> "However, the general similarities of the drawdown slopes of observation wells in <br /> the Upper zone positioned within 20 feet (LM190A and LM191A) and greater than <br /> 240 feet (LM174AU and LM071A) of extraction well EW056A suggest hydraulic <br /> communication within the Upper Hydrologic Zone." <br /> The State has attached Figure 3-9 of the Pump Test Report to this letter. The <br /> drawdown slopes for the observation wells referenced in DLA's statement above are <br /> depicted in the figure. The similarity between the slopes of observation wells LM174AU, <br /> LM190A, and LM191A are obvious. In addition, all three wells show the rebound effect <br /> at the end of the pumping test when EW056A was shutoff in early October. The rapid <br /> rebound response of the water level observed in LM174AU, greater than 240 feet away <br /> from the pumping well, is strong evidence for the continuity of sand units within the <br /> northwest corner dieldrin plume at the Tracy site. <br /> The break in the sand units shown on the geologic cross section Figures 3-13a and <br /> 3-13b of the Pump Test Report between EW056A and LM174AU is misleading. This <br /> break is an artifact caused by under sampling in an aquifer with subunits that are <br /> narrower than the average sampling interval. The under sampling is also the result of <br /> lack of access to the Union Pacific railroad property that forms a wide swath oblique to <br /> the direction of the interconnected stream channels predicted by the State's site <br /> conceptual model described to DLA previously. <br /> Continuity of formations in the sands is supported by the presence of dieldrin <br /> concentrations equal to the injection concentrations over 240 feet from the injection <br /> wells. Additional evidence of sufficient continuity of coarse-grained stringers (sand units) <br /> is the presence of the dieldrin in randomly placed cone-penetrometer (CPT) sampling <br /> locations regardless of the lithology the sample was collected from. <br />