1 alter characteristics? I think John said to me 10 percent; right? A 10 



2 percent increase in something may alter. 



3 DR. COOPER: That's a pretty safe statement! 



4 DR. TEAL: I think it very frequently takes something like a 10 



5 percent change in physical or chemical characteristics to alter the 



6 environment. 



7 DR. HECKER: Will you be able to give me a reference for that, 



8 John? 



9 DR. TEAL: Since we don't know anything about these organisms and 



10 you don't know what their sensitivities are, I'm sort of talking off the 



11 top of my head. It may be nonsense, but if you said a 1 percent change, 



12 then you could be fairly certain that if you changed, for example, the 



13 concentration of barium in the sediment by one percent, you would be 



14 fairly certain that that wasn't going to have any effect on the 



15 organism. I think that's a fairly conservative statement. 



16 DR. AYERS: You can't measure that. 



17 DR. TEAL: That makes it even more conservative than I thought it 



18 was. 



19 (Laughter) 



20 DR. NEFF: There is the natural seasonal variability in things 



21 like sedimentation of the soil to twenty percent over the years. 



22 DR. TEAL: Right. 



23 DR. COOPER: Given a commercial -drilling operation in the head of 



24 Lydonia Canyon or on the rim or something, what is likely to be the 



25 biggest, most serious impact? Is it going to be the mercury, lead, and 



26 zinc that may get down into the lobster or shrimp populations? 



27 Is it going to be suffocation 2 miles away from the rig? What are 



28 we talking about here? 



29 DR. TEAL: It's not suffocation 2 miles away from the rig, no. 



30 DR. AYERS: Can I just respond to that? I've done a lot of 



31 looking and I guess, in my experience, the impact you see is in the 



32 immediate vicinity of the well site. I'm saying it could range anywhere 



33 from 100 meters maybe to 7 or 8 hundred meters. They are burial 



34 effects, physical burial effects. 



233 



