After discussions with Harry and Raymond, Chris develops a cautious strategy to make current DEQ bosses aware of the agency's history with DuPont, and what appear to be astonishing communication failures in dealing with DuPont Fayetteville Works over many years. Chris observes that in some cases agency employees are either frightened by this unsettling information or express skepticism and disbelief.
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"Most people don't want to talk to the U.S. Attorney's Office in a criminal investigation. Why do you want to talk to them?"
"I have information that may be useful to the criminal investigation. We knew about the chemicals being discharged at DuPont Fayetteville Works," Chris said.
"But was it us?"
"Yes, we knew," Chris responded.
"But was it us?" he asked again.
"Yes, our agency."
"But was it us?" he repeated for the third time.
Chris paused, trying to make sense of the repeated question. His boss, one of the two bosses that Chris reported to in the Raleigh field office on Barrett Drive, waited patiently for his answer. After more than a year on the job, Chris knew this particular boss to be conscientious, knowledgeable, and respectful to others. For that, Chris was grateful. He also understood that this boss reported to another boss located several miles away in the Archdale fortress building in downtown Raleigh. And that boss reported to another boss, a division director, in the water resources division at the Archdale building, who in turn reported to the assistant secretary for the environment, located in another downtown location, the Green Square building. The assistant secretary reported to the head of the agency, also in the Green Square building, who reported to the Governor's Office and to the General Assembly. Harry expected this to be a challenging effort, but likely to succeed if Chris tried multiple paths of communication within the large, multi-layered organization.
"Yes, the agency's division of air quality. I was working in air quality at that time," Chris said.
"But was it us?" his boss repeated for the fourth time.
It seemed much like Sister Lucy asking repeatedly which fourth grade boys had been throwing snowballs at the holy statue in front of the school building. Perhaps she was just trying to find out which boys threw the two snowballs that actually hit the statue. Maybe she was not interested in which boys threw all the snowballs that missed.
"It was the Fayetteville regional office. It was the management of the agency's division of air quality in Raleigh and people located in the Fayetteville office."
"So it wasn't us," he responded with a somewhat reassured tone. However, he had another question.
"Where is DuPont Fayetteville Works?"
"Fayetteville. It's located in the Fayetteville region," Chris responded.
"But where is it located?"
There was another pause. Chris stared at the eyes of his boss. It suddenly dawned on him that his boss might be trying to indirectly communicate about another potentially significant factor.
"Actually, it's located in Bladen County," Chris answered.
Now there was a long pause in the conversation. Their eyes were locked in silence. Bladen County is a rural county that is located downstream of Fayetteville.
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