A local geology professor who’s worked as a consultant for Monroe County, the Environmental Management Council and the health department on nearly every hazardous waste site in the area that 's been investigated in the past 30 years is weighing in on the Lehigh Valley Railroad Derailment site in LeRoy.

"I mean, this was a particularly bad spill, 30,000 gallons in one little spot, and on this kind of rock, that's the worst kind of rock to have a spill on," Dr. Richard Young said, referring to the amount of trichloroethene or TCE that spilled during the December 6, 1970 train derailment in LeRoy.

The rock is Onondaga limestone.

"All these black lines are fractures that break up the rock,” Young said while referencing a photo of the bedrock. “They appear naturally, so they would be present throughout the area wherever this rock is present."

Young said the unusual fracture pattern meant the hazardous industrial solvent could have moved in almost any direction, quickly.

"It's just like putting it through a sieve, it just keeps on going," he explained.

Young was part of the team of environmental consultants hired by the state to thoroughly investigate the site in the 1990s.

"The spill was here and the pollution's moved at least three miles to the area around Caledonia,” said Young while showing YNN a map of the spill site. “And the creek in Caledonia had a fish hatchery on it, which they were concerned about at the time."

Young said the study was one of the most intensive he's been involved in.

"I would say that the data that we have for this site is much better than almost any other hazardous waste site, expect for places like Love Canal. It really was intensively studied at the local level and the state level and the federal level," he said.

The U.S EPA didn't exist until the same month the derailment occurred.

"There were no spill teams, there were no people in hazmat suits to run out and say, 'Hey we're gonna clean this up.' And probably within 24 hours this stuff was in the ground, so even if they mobilized, it just goes right into the soil and once it does that, it’s pretty tough to do anything about," said Young.

Young said at this point in time, the most reasonable course of action for people concerned, is to have their water tested.

"It's extremely expensive to drill holes, and then when you drill a hole and you get a number, how do you know? Maybe there's very little pollution there, and ten feet away there's a lot. So, I mean how do you decide how many holes? I mean you're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars to drill holes and collect samples, so I think unfortunately economics is the main obstacle," Young said.

YNN also asked Young for his opinion on a possible connection between TCE exposure and the outbreak of conversion disorder among more than a dozen LeRoy teens.

"When I first heard about it, I thought it was kind of unusual, because I would not have made that connection myself. But then, I'm not an expert in the health field, but I couldn't see any connection that I'd run across in the past," said Young.