The situation with the Solway green waste facility [1] is degenerating into nonsense. Commissioner DeFreese is determined to prove there is coal ash at the facility, but this is not in dispute. NRR has admitted that it accepted ash from Y-12, and DeFreese posted photographs [2] of mulch piles with ash spread over them. If you look at the satellite view [3] of the mulch facility on Google Maps, you can see a dumptruck full of ash being unloaded onto a mulch pile. Coal ash contains high levels of arsenic.

NRR has stopped accepting coal ash, and TDEC told them they could blend the ash into mulch, diluting it until arsenic levels drop below limits for Class B mulch, which should not be used where children or food crops could contact it. That is what they have done. Whatever ash is still on site has been mixed in with mulch and is likely not detectable through visual inspection any longer. The recent testing was pointless.

DeFreese posted transcripts of recorded conversations and was upset that Tom Salter and the AMEC technician said they would dump samples on the ground. Without having heard the recordings, my guess is they were teasing her because she was trying to tell them how to do their job without fully understanding what was being done. The whole test was something of a joke.

But now Bruce Wuethrich is claiming that samples must be refrigerated to be valid. This is absurd. Arsenic is an element, atomic number 33, and the only way to break it down is by launching it into the Sun. Inorganic samples do not need refrigeration.

The Microbac tests that showed arsenic in the Popps' well water are likely accurate, and the ash NRR admitted to accepting is the likely source of that arsenic, especially since they pushed contaminated mulch off the main processing field and into a corner of the property above the Popps' home. To get from the mulch piles into wells, the arsenic must be transported by rain. The Microbac samples were collected during a rainy spell in July. The repeat tests were done as we entered the current dry spell. That's why the results disagree. A citizen has volunteered to pay for further tests; these will be pointless unless they are done during a rainy period.