Peggy,
In Maryland the same thing is true. Citizens can report a violation and a
location, but only an authorized government employee can take the
sample.  Usually it is someone from the health department.  The "evidence"
may end up in a court of law some day, so they have to collect it "by the
rules". Slowness to respond is generally the problem.  What we need is to
petition the government to set up a faster response system. Perhaps a
hazmat team?  An 800 number to report spills to is also usefull. Taking
pictures at the site would help, and tracing it as far upstream would also
be helpful. Another approach is to call the press and have them photograph
it and publish it. But this approach generally makes public officials mad
and uncooperative!
                                                                 Take-care!
                                                                 Linda


At 03:23 PM 4/19/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I'd like to tell a story about what has happened here in Ames to help you
>to advocate for broad rules in this bill.
>
>You may have read in the newspaper that someone reported antifreeze being
>dumped through an Ames storm drain a couple of weeks ago.  Here's what
>happened.
>
>A man was walking his dog in the Squaw Creek riverbed here in Ames on a
>Tuesday evening.  He saw what looked and smelled like antifreeze gushing
>out of a stormdrain, went home.  It was 7:45 when he called the DNR
>emergency number.  The DNR called the Ames police department and asked them
>to investigate.  At 8:30 an Ames officer went out to check it
>out.  Although the man had given an accurate description of the location of
>the stormdrain the DNR, the officer was unable to locate it.
>
>On Wednesday morning the city of Ames went out and saw grey metallic
>residue on the riverbed there, took a sample of the stormdrain effluent at
>that time and sent it to the DNR for testing.
>
>The next week the same Ames man went back to Squaw Creek, this time
>starting far downstream and doing a fish count up to the stormdrain
>area.  The same green effluent he saw before was coming out again.  This
>time he was able to catch half a gallon of it.  The DNR refused to take the
>effluent he found there, and, apparently, the same offender is continuing
>to wash some noxious substance down Squaw Creek on, perhaps, a daily basis.
>
>If the DNR were able to accept samples of such effluents from citizens,
>there would be a greater likelihood that such events could be documented
>and offenders identified.
>
>Broad rules would benefit us all.
>
>Peggy Murdock
>
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