Opinion ID: 652885
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The AGES Study

Text: 22 The dispute between Tonolli Canada and the Authority principally revolves around the proper interpretation of the results of the AGES test. In July, 1987, the Authority engaged an engineering firm to perform a long-term pumping test designed to determine whether contamination from the Tonolli property could affect the Authority's groundwater supply. The Authority then knew (as has been stipulated in this case) that the Authority's underground water supply was upgradient to the Tonolli site, i.e., the underground area from which the Authority's wells draw their water is higher than the groundwater area underneath the Tonolli site. Thus, under normal conditions the groundwater does not flow from the Tonolli site toward the Authority's wells. The Authority undertook the AGES study to see if long-term, continuous pumping of the Authority's wells would create a reversal of this normal trend such that contamination from the Tonolli site could infiltrate the Authority's water supply. 23 The AGES study was conducted over a 72-hour period. The AGES consultants installed three monitoring wells between the Tonolli site and the Authority's supply wells. The test also utilized two previously installed monitoring wells located between the Authority's production wells and the Tonolli site. For the 72-hour period, the Authority pumped its production wells at full capacity and the consultants then took two measurements: 1) the groundwater levels in the Tonolli monitoring wells, and 2) the water quality in the Authority's production and monitoring wells. According to the Authority, the theory behind this procedure was that if the water level of the Tonolli monitoring wells dropped during the test, it would tend to prove that long-term and full-scale pumping effected a reversal in groundwater direction. Moreover, if the Authority detected higher levels of contaminants in its wells after the full-scale pumping, this, according to the Authority, would tend to prove that there was a groundwater reversal because the contaminants could have come from the Tonolli site. 24 At the end of the 72 hours of full-scale pumping there was a drop in two of the Tonolli monitoring wells. The water level in one well dropped by 1.74 feet; in another monitoring well, the water level fell by 1.26 feet. In addition, slightly higher levels of lead and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected after the test. The Authority thus argues that the AGES study demonstrated that at some point during the pumping test, the groundwater direction reversed. Dr. Fungaroli, the geologist in charge of the AGES test and the plaintiff's expert witness, testified that based on the results of the AGES study, he believed that the Tonolli site posed a threat of future contamination to the Authority's current water source.