Chapter 1: Upside-Down Fish

Natalie and Jason followed their cousin, Michael, down to the river with their towels and bags slung over their shoulders.  They had already walked about ten minutes and could hear the rushing water pounding on the rocks and riverbanks.  It was a glorious sound that brought back memories of tubing down boiling rapids, swimming in deep clear pools, and fishing on  long summer afternoons while birds fluttered above in the pine and alder trees.  The Browns  visited their cousins every year, and Natalie and Jason looked forward to hanging out with Mike.  It was great to be back again.

 Mike was about Natalie’s age and looked a little bit like Natalie, but he was only as tall as Jason, and had impossibly red hair, which he inherited from his mother.  He was a great friend.  They had the best of times at their cousin’s house, and every year when they returned, their friendship was instant as if they had never left.

 Both Natalie and Jason knew the narrow dirt path to the river well and as they got closer, they broke into a run.  Mike anticipated this and stepped sideways to block Natalie’s path. 

“Hey, not fair!”  Natalie protested.  But the two boys just laughed and ran on ahead.  They sprinted the last hundred yards to the river’s edge, and when they arrived all three collapsed on the rocky shoreline laughing and gasping for breath, their towels and bags flung carelessly over tree branches and bushes on the river bank.

 “Hey,” Mike said sitting up still breathing hard, “You wanna’ to see some crawdads?”  “What are crawdads?” Jason asked quizzically. 

“Crayfish!” Natalie answered. 

“Yeah.  This river is full of them.  My dad showed me how to catch them.”  Mike stood up, removed his socks and shoes and stumbled barefoot across the slippery rocks and into the river.  Natalie and Jason followed him cautiously into the shallow water. 

“Okay!” Mike began, “They live under the big rocks like this one,” he said pointing to a large flat stone between his feet.  “Now watch this.” 

Jason balked, “Wait a second.  Don’t they have claws?  Won’t they pinch you?” 

“Yeah”, Mike answered bending down toward the rock, “You gotta know how to catch them right, or they’ll give it to you good.” 

Natalie and Jason watched in wonder as their cousin slowly picked up one edge of the rock and peered under it.  “I see one!” Mike yelled startling both his cousins and causing them to take a step back.  Mike slowly brought his free hand down to the top of the water and then suddenly lunged under the rock. 

“Got it, and it’s big, too”, Mike said triumphantly.  He fished around in the water for a second, and then pulled out a light brown lobster-like crayfish that was about four inches long.  The creature held out two thick claws and snapped at them menacingly as its eight tiny legs scrambled in the air.  It snapped its large armored tail several times, but Mike held it firmly by its back and out of range. 

Mike grinned ear-to-ear as he held the fighting crayfish out for his cousins to see.  “Wow!” cried Jason keeping his distance not sure what to make of this small but fearsome looking creature. 

“Do you want to hold him?” Mike asked challenging them. 

“No way,” said Jason, but Natalie thought about it for a second then asked, “How do you hold him, so he doesn’t pinch you?” 

“Grab him by the back right behind the head and then he can’t get you,” Mike answered holding out his hand to show her.  Natalie reached for the crayfish and pinched it’s back as Mike instructed, and then Mike let go.  The crayfish sat motionless for a moment, trapped in Natalie’s grip, and then suddenly snapped its big tail with great force.  Natalie screamed and dropped it.  Instinctively, she put her hands out to catch the creature, which was a big mistake.  The crayfish pinched her finger, and she let out another great scream and sent it flying across the river into the water.  The two boys screamed and howled with laughter as Natalie gripped her pinched finger.  Jason laughed so hard he stumbled on the loose rocks and fell over into the river soaking his pants.  Sitting in the cool tumbling water still laughing hysterically, Jason felt something bump against his side.  He turned around and came face-to-face with an upside-down fish.

  Chapter 2: The Water Burns

 Jason leapt out of the water and screeched, horrified at the sight of the fish floating next to him.  Mike and Natalie hardly noticed at first because Mike was still laughing too hard and Natalie was nursing her pinched finger.  When the river current moved the fish down stream between them, Mike and Natalie forgot about the crawdad, and the three of them stared dumbfounded at it.

 It was big, about twelve inches long, and its belly was shiny white and bobbed up and down with the ripples in the current. 

“What kind of fish is it?” Jason asked Mike. 

“Just a second,” Mike picking up a small branch and poking the fish to turn it over.  The back of the fish was dark brown with small green and red speckles all over it. 

“It’s a brook trout,” Mike said bewildered.  “But what happened to it?  I don’t see any marks on it.” 

“I don’t know,” Jason said, innocently, “It just bumped into me when I fell down.”  Natalie reached down and began rubbing her legs as though she were in pain. “Ouch! My legs are burning.  Do your legs hurt?” she asked.  Both boys felt it as well, and all three of them scrambled out of the water and onto the shore.  They looked down at their feet and noticed that their skin was bright red and tingling all over. 

“Ouch!”  cried Jason.  He quickly grabbed his towel and began to wipe the water off his legs.  “Look!” he cried in astonishment.  “The hair on my legs has turned all white.” 

“Me, too,” Natalie said pulling a towel out of her bag and wiping down her legs.  Mike looked at his legs and saw the usual dark brown hair down to the middle of his shinbone, but below, all of the hair had turned white and his skin was bright red. 

“What’s going on?” he screeched, hopping up and down in panic.   Natalie handed him her towel and tried to calm him down.  “It’s OK Mike.  Just wipe it off.  We’ll be OK”.

Then Jason pointed back toward the river and said, “Look at all the dead fish in the river.  Something’s in the water, and it’s killing them.”  Natalie and Mike looked and saw about ten fish bobbing lifelessly on the surface.  They then looked up stream and saw another fifteen or so fish floating toward them.  “I don’t know what happened, but something has poisoned these fish and burned us, and we’ve got to find out what it is,” Natalie said firmly.

  Chapter 3: Testing the pH

 “Jason,” Natalie began.  “Do you remember the oil spill at South Bay?  How the oil floated on the water and made a rainbow sheen?”  Jason knew what she was talking about and looked toward the river. 

“Yeah, but I don’t see a sheen on the river.  I don’t think its oil.” 

“Right,” said Natalie.  “Nothing’s floating on the water.  Maybe it’s something dissolved in the water.  Let’s check the pH.” 

“The what?” Mike asked bewildered, “What are you talking about?” 

Jason and Natalie looked at each other with knowing smiles. 

“The pH,” answered Jason. “It’s a scale of how acidic the water is.  You know like acids and bases.” 

“Oh,” said Mike as he watched Natalie pull a small clear plastic box out of her bag.  She opened the box and pulled out two small white strips of paper and handed one to Mike and the other to Jason, then pulled another one out for herself.  On one end of the paper were four small colored boxes each a different shade of yellow, green, and orange.

“Let’s all test the water,” she said, and walking down to the river’s edge, she dipped the colored end of the paper into the water, then pulled it out and looked at the four boxes.  To Mike’s amazement, the color of the boxes had changed instantly.  The green box had turned yellow and the yellow box had turned purple. 

“Bingo!” cried Natalie.  “I think it’s an acid.”  She pulled out the plastic box and compared the colors on the test strip to a color chart.  Jason and Mike crowded around her to look. 

“Wow, the pH is 1,” both Jason and Natalie said together.

 “Better check that again”, said Jason and he walked up stream a few steps and dipped his paper into the water. 

“Mike, can you walk up to that big pine tree and test the water up there?” Natalie asked pointing to a very large pine tree about thirty steps upriver.  “Just dip the colored part of the pH paper into the water, swirl it around for a second, and then pull it out.”  Mike looked at the river near the tree and headed off to do the test still confused as to what was going on.

 When Jason and Mike returned with their test papers, they compared the colored boxes to the color chart. 

“Same result for all of them.  pH 1!” Natalie said with a very concerned look on her face.  Jason looked very worried as well. 

“So, what does that mean?” Mike finally had the courage to ask. 

Jason began, “You know about acids, right.”

“OK, like battery acid?” 

“Yes,” Natalie shook her head. “Strong acids have a very low pH, about 2 or less.  Natural water like this river should have a neutral pH around 7.” 

“So, someone has dumped a lot of acid into this river,” continued Jason, “and that’s what killed the fish and burned our legs”.

  Chapter 4:  The Tank

 The expression on Mike’s face suddenly changed from confusion to anger, “You mean someone has dumped acid in my river and polluted it?” 

“It looks that way,” said Jason.  “pH 1 is very strong acid and never found in nature.  It would have to come from somewhere.” 

“Wow! Where do you guys know this stuff,” Mike asked amazed. 

“From science class,” Jason said smiling. 

“Yeah, and we got the pH paper from Dad”, said Natalie.  “He’s an environmental scientist. He owns N&J Environmental and the company cleans up the environment.”

 “Well what do we do now?” Mike asked still very angry.  “Look at all the dead fish!”   Jason and Natalie turned around to see bunches of white-bellied fish bobbing down the river. 

“I say we follow the river and find out what happened,” Jason volunteered. 

“I agree.  Let’s go,” said Mike, and he strode off up river. 

“Wait a second,” cried Natalie.  “Let’s call our parents first.  They’ll know what to do.”  But the two boys were already running and quickly disappeared into the brush. 

“Crazy boys,” thought Natalie gritting her teeth.  This was serious, and they needed help.  She called her Uncle’s house on her cell phone and told her parents what had happened and to come right a way.  Then, she raced off after the two boys.

 She caught up with them a few of minutes later crashing through the brush next to the river. 

“Wait a second, guys,” she said out of breath.  “How will you know if you find anything without the pH paper?” 

Mike pointed out into the river and answered, “We don’t need that now.  Look at the tree branches dangling in the water.  See how they’re all chewed up and bleached white.  That’s not right, and I bet we can follow them to the place where the acid came from.” Natalie looked out across the river and sure enough the branches were white and ragged looking.  “This is some strong acid,” she thought to herself. 

The three of them walked through the woods for about fifteen minutes watching the far shore for burned tree branches hanging in the river.  At first they saw many dead fish floating downstream.  But after a while the number of fish dwindled and then stopped.  Finally, the damage disappeared altogether, and the trees were green once more. 

“Let’s try the pH again”, said Natalie pulling out a test strip and dipping it into the water.  Mike noted that the colors on the strip didn’t change this time, and when they compared the strip to the chart, his hunch was proven correct. 

“pH 7“, they all said at once. 

 “OK, this must be the place”, Mike concluded.  “Let’s see what’s over on the other side.”  All three peered through the bushes across the water to the opposite riverbank.  The river was wide and shallow here and numerous trees and bushes blocked their view. 

After a couple of minutes searching, Jason pointed across to the river and said, “Look there!  See that small stream running down the bank and into the water?” Natalie and Mike looked and sure enough under a tree and behind some white burned branches dangling in the water, they could see a thin but deep groove in the river bank where all of the plants were gone or were chewed up and the soil washed away.  Up on top of the bank behind some trees, they saw a clearing and a huge silver object standing on metals legs. 

“An above ground storage tank.” Natalie whispered. 

 Chapter 5: Sulfuric Acid

 The river was shallow and easy to cross, so the three of them quickly waded to the other side.  Natalie dipped a pH paper in the clear liquid trickling down the deep groove in the bank and the paper turned deep purple. 

“pH 0!” she said astonished.  “This is very strong acid.  Don’t touch it whatever you do.”  They climbed up the bank and followed the groove in the soil.  It led directly to the huge silver tank.  It was very big, about as long as a car and as tall as a van and stood slightly tilted on four thin metal legs.  On the front, they saw a sign that read, “Sulfuric Acid” and next to it was a black and white placard with the number 1832 in the middle and a picture of a test tube pouring liquid onto a corroded hand. 

“What’s sulfuric acid?” asked Mike when he read the sign. 

“Battery acid, a very strong acid,” answered Jason.

 Natalie noticed a hole in the bottom of the tank near one of the legs and then realized that the top of the leg had actually punched through the rusty tank wall.  Clear liquid still dripped out the hole.  “Look guys,” she cried as she followed the drip down into a concrete trough under the tank.  The bottom of the trough was wet and full of leaves that were white ratty as ghosts. 

“This tank must have rusted through and all the acid leaked out,” Natalie continued, “But how did the acid get to the river?” 

“Over there,” Jason screamed.  He raced around to the back of the concrete trough and, taking a stick, moved some leaves aside to reveal a pipe through the wall of the trough.  Not a foot away was a rubber cap lying loose on the bottom.  Outside the wall, the trail of destruction began and headed directly down the bank into the river.

  Chapter 6: Mr. Jones

 “Jason!  Natalie!  Mike!”  The three kids heard their parents calling from the opposite side of the river. 

“Over here, Dad!” yelled Natalie and Jason together.  They ran down the bank to the water’s edge to wave to them.  Mr. Brown and Mike’s dad took off their socks and shoes and waded across the river to the kids who all began talking at once. 

“Hold it, hold it,” Mr. Brown said holding up his hands.  “First, are you all OK?  Let me see your legs”.  The kids held out their feet, and Mr. Brown examined them one at a time.  “Look at my legs, Dad!”  Mike said excitedly, “I’m brown on the top and white at the bottom.”  Mike’s dad looked at his son’s legs horrified at the red color of his skin. 

“Well, as far as I can tell, the burns aren’t too bad,” said Mr. Brown after a few minutes, “But we should go to the hospital to be sure.” 

 “Dad,” Jason said, “Did you see the dead fish in the river? There were so many of them.  They were all killed by the acid.” 

“Yes, Jason,” Mr. Brown, who was owner of N&J Environmental, answered. “It’s pretty bad.  We need to call the fire department and police to get them down here right away.” 

“I can do that,” Natalie said pulling her cell phone out. 

“Great Natalie, Dial 911,” Mr. Brown said. 

Mike’s dad looked out at the buildings on the property and said, “I think we’re at the old battery recycling facility on Oak Road.  Tell the authorities we’ll wait for them around back.” 

Fifteen minutes later, they heard the sirens and soon the red fire trucks bounced their way through the potholes around the old recycling facility to where they waited.  The emergency lights flashed and flickered brightly as the huge trucks approached.  One of the firefighters in the front cab pointed toward them, and the truck pulled up close and stopped.  The driver shut off the siren much to the relief of everyone.  A firefighter stepped out and introduced himself. 

“Hi, I’m Chief Jim Tranell.  You must be Natalie who called in the acid spill,” he said looking down at Natalie’s cell phone. 

“Yeah,” she said with a big smile.  She’d never talked to a fire chief before. 

“Hey, the three of us discovered the leak,” Jason chimed in. 

“Great work, kids,” the fire chief said.  “Show me what you found, and we’ll take it from here.”  The three kids took the fire chief to the tank and showed him the hole and the liquid in the cement trough. 

“That trough is supposed to hold the acid if it spills out of the tank.  It looks like someone removed the plug to let the rainwater drain out and forgot to put the plug back in,” the Fire Chief said.  Natalie put a piece of pH paper into the liquid, and it instantly turned purple. 

The Fire Chief nodded his headed approvingly, “pH 0.  Nice work.”

 “What are you going to do now?” Jason asked the fire chief. 

“We’re going to call the owner of this business and tell him what happened, and he’ll clean it up,” the Chief answered.  “He’ll probably replace this tank and dig up a bit of contaminated soil along the river bank.  That’s about all we can do.” 

“What about the fish in the river?” protested Mike. 

“Nothing we can do about that,” the Chief said matter-of–factly.  Natalie looked at her Dad horrified.  “He’s right,” said Mr. Brown. 

“The fish are dead, we can’t help them.  We can’t get the acid out of the river either.  It will be diluted as it flows downstream and eventually neutralized.  But don’t worry.   The owner will get a Natural Resource Damage fine, which will be used to restock the river with fish.  The river will recover in a couple of years.” 

“Two years!” exclaimed Mike, “Where am I going to fish this year?  My summer’s ruined!” Mike stomped his feet and looked absolutely furious. 

“Come on, Tiger,” said Mike’s dad taking him by the hand, “Let’s go to the hospital and get you guys checked out.” 

As they turned to leave, a car raced around the building toward them and skidded to a stop sending a great cloud of dust into the air.  The driver’s door flew open and a tall thin man stepped out.  He wore jeans and an old plaid shirt, and he looked very angry.  “What’s going on here?” he demanded. 

The Fire Chief stepped toward him and said, “You’ve had an acid spill into the river, Mr. Jones.  I suggest you contact a work crew to clean up the mess.” 

“Did those kids vandalize my tank?” Mr. Jones screamed glaring at Natalie, Jason, and Mike. 

“No,” the Chief answered firmly, “They found it this way.  Now are you going to call your contractor, or do I have to call someone in and charge you for the costs?”

 The two men argued for a moment, while Natalie, Jason, and Mike watched stunned.  Finally, Mr. Brown took them by the hand and said, “Come on, kids, we’ve done all we can here.”  They walked down the riverbank on their way to the hospital.

  Chapter 7 : Mr. Pincus 

Their visit to the hospital lasted a couple of hours.  The emergency room was fairly busy, and they had to wait a while before the doctor could see them.  While they waited, Mr. Brown called a friend of his, Mr. Pincus, at the Fish and Wildlife Department and told him about the spill and the dead fish.  Mr. Pincus thanked Mr. Brown, and said he would go to the scene immediately to assess the damage.

 When the doctor finally saw the kids, he said they were not burned badly.  He rubbed some ointment on their legs and sent them home with a tube and instructions to apply it again that night.

When they arrived at home, the three kids immediately ran down to the river to see what was happening.  As they approached the battery recycling facility, the roar of a large machine reverberated through the woods, and when they arrived, they saw a large yellow excavator on the top of the riverbank with its arm high in the air.  A large chain hung from the bucket and was wrapped around the tank.  Someone in the yard was shouting and then the excavator engine revved and with a small jerk lifted the tank up off its legs and into the air.  The excavator swung slowly around and placed the tank on the ground with a thud.  Then the arm rose up and came down hard on the tank several times crushing it into a flat crumpled mass.  Then the excavator lifted the tank and placed it on a flat bed truck.

 “Wow!” the three kids exclaimed smiling and laughing. 

“That was so cool!  Let’s go see what they’re going to do next”, Mike said bending down to take off his shoes. 

“I don’t know,” Natalie said doubtfully, “Remember Mr. Jones, he was pretty creepy.”  “Yeah, really creepy,” Jason agreed shuddering. 

While the three kids talked, two men appeared at the top of the riverbank.  The first was the tall imposing figure of Mr. Jones.  The second man was someone new.   He was dressed in dark brown khakis and had a notebook in one hand, a map in the other hand, and a big camera with a long lens slung over his shoulder.  He walked awkwardly in a pair of heavy knee-high rubber boots.  Mr. Jones followed the man and was yelling, “Go ahead.  Look all you want, but you won’t find anything.  There was hardly any acid in the tank!”  The man thanked Mr. Jones and began climbing down the bank along the gouge left by the acid spill.  Mr. Jones threw his hands up in the air in disgust and left.

 The man inched his way down the bank taking photos and writing notes every couple of minutes as he examined the plants and soil along the gouge.  Natalie spotted him first.  “Hey, who’s that?” she asked.  Both boys looked and shrugged their shoulders. 

They watched him for a minute and then Jason said, “I don’t know, but he doesn’t look very steady in those boots.”  As Jason spoke the words, the man’s oversize boots slipped and he let out a yelp as he tumbled down the bank and landed with a splash in the river.  His camera followed him and with an extra bounce flew out into the river and disappeared beneath the water. 

“I know who he is,” Natalie took off her shoes and socks. “He’s the guy that Dad called while we were at the hospital,” she yelled plunging into the river .  She quickly waded through the knee-deep water the man.  “Are you alright, Mr. Pincus?” she asked when she got close enough.  The man looked up and seemed a little startled. 

“Uh, yes,” he answered.  He stood up holding his notebook, which miraculously was still dry, up in the air, as his clothes dripped with water.  “Hoolie Doolie!”, he said with a smile, “That sure cooled me off.  Very nice!”  Then Mr. Pincus broke into a big laugh, and Natalie couldn’t help a big smile to.

 “So, how do you know my name?” he asked climbing up into the bank. 

“I’m Mr. Brown’s daughter, Natalie.  My dad called you about the acid spill. He's with N&J Environmental.” 

“Ohhh yes!” Mr. Pincus’ face lit up.  “Hello Natalie, nice to meet you.”  He extended his hand, and Natalie shook it.  And this is my brother Jason and my cousin, Mike,” Natalie answered as the boys joined them.  They both said “Hi,” togethe 

“That was a nasty fall.” 

“Yeah, but I’m OK.” 

“Your camera wasn’t so lucky,” Jason said pulling it from the water.  Mr. Pincus’ eyes opened wide, and suddenly he looked as though all the air had been sucked out of him.  He took the camera in his hands and quickly looked it over.  Water poured out when he removed the lens from the body.  “Well, this camera is junk now!” he sighed.  “How am I going to get my work done?” 

“So, what are you doing?” Natalie asked.  Mr. Pincus frowned and said, “I’m looking at the damage done by the spill to determine if we should assess a Natural Resource Damage claim against the owner of the tank.  The owner said the tank was empty but the Fire Chief thinks it was probably full when the leak sprung.  The tank was about a thousand gallons, and that amount of sulfuric acid and lead can do a lot of damage to a small river like this.  I’m going to walk the river and see what happened.” 

“We know what happened!” scowled Mike.  “It killed a whole lot of brook trout, chewed up some trees, and I bet the crayfish didn’t survive either.”  Both Natalie and Jason nodded their heads in agreement. 

“Well, I’d like to see it, but I can’t document the damage without a camera”. 

“I can take photos with my phone,” Natalie said taking her phone out of her pocket and holding it up for everyone to see.

“That’s a great idea,” Mr. Pincus exclaimed very pleased.

“Great.  Follow us,” the two boys said, as they scampered across the river to the other side.

  Chapter 8: Fish Kill

 The two boys marched quickly downstream looking for dead fish.  Natalie stayed behind with Mr. Pincus who moved slowly in his wet clothes and oversize boots.  She was quiet for a few moments while she gathered her thoughts.  Then she said, “I have two questions.  The first is, you said sulfuric acid and lead.  What’s lead?”  Mr. Pincus smiled.  “Lead is a toxic metal.  It’s particularly toxic to fish such as trout.  I’m looking for it here because car batteries contain sulfuric acid and lead.  The acid would have killed the fish, but it will be neutralized in the water fairly quickly.  The lead will not be neutralized and may stay in the river for years and continue to kill or harm the fish.”

 Natalie thought about it for a second and then said, “My dad says nothing can be done about the acid.  Is that right?” 

“Unfortunately, yes.  Once the acid entered the river, it dissolved completely and we can’t get it out,” Mr. Pincus answered.  “In cases like this, all we can do is replace the injured flora and fauna and let Mother Nature finish the repairs.

“OK”, said Natalie starting to understand. “So we follow the river and look for dead stuff until it ends?” 

“Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.”

 About twenty yards ahead, Jason and Mike called them to look at some dead fish.  Five dead brook trout were caught up in some sticks along the riverbank.  Mr. Pincus picked up the biggest one and examined it for a moment and then put it back in the water. 

“It’s a brook trout, alright,” he said.  He jotted some notes in his book and then said, “Let’s keep going”. 

They walked for several more minutes and passed the area where Mike had picked up the crayfish this morning.  They found a few dead fish here and there stuck in little pockets in the riverbank.  Mike found a couple of dead crayfish as well.  Mr. Pincus examined each creature, and Natalie took photos.  But the number of dead animals was very low and not the large numbers they expected to find. 

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Pincus said looking at his map, “There’s a pond up a head.  They probably floated down there.” 

“Oh yeah, I know that pond. Follow me!” Mike said as he took off at a quick pace down the river.  Jason followed right behind him. 

A few minutes later Natalie and Mr. Pincus heard the boys hollering. “Wow!!  Natalie!  Mr. Pincus!  You gotta see this!”

Chapter 9: NDA

 Natalie and Mr. Pincus hurried as fast as they could to where Jason and Mike stood on the shore of a small pond.  When they arrived, they were stunned at what they saw.  People lined the far bank, and police cars and fire trucks were parked nearby with their blue and reds lights flickering brightly.  In the water, lay hundreds, maybe thousands of dead fish, their white bellies bobbing in the dark water.

“Didn’t Mr. Jones say we wouldn’t find anything?” Natalie asked rhetorically.  

Mr. Pincus chuckled, “I guess he hadn’t checked his tank inventory lately. Can you take a photo for me from here?”  Mr. Pincus pointing toward the dead fish lining the far shore.   Natalie nodded and snapped a photo with her phone.  Then they walked around the pond toward the crowd and the mass of fish. 

 As they approached, several people asked what he was doing and if he had any information about the fish kill.  Mr. Pincus politely said he did not, and that he was gathering information about the incident.  They seemed disappointed, but they left him alone afterward.

 When they reached a floating mat of dead fish, Natalie tested the water with a pH test strip.  “pH 3” she announced after looking at the colored boxes. 

“Hmmm, that’s quite acidic,” Mr. Pincus mumbled and jotted down some notes.  He picked up several fish and identified them.  Blue gills and small mouth bass, Mr. Pincus said these fish lived in the pond.  About half were brook trout that he said must have been washed down from the river.  Mike spotted something orange in the water and waded into the pond to investigate.  “I found a gold fish,” he said holding up a large orange fish by the tail.  Mr. Pincus smirked and said, “That’s from someone’s aquarium.” 

  Chapter 10 : Meeting Mr. Jones Again

 Natalie took a photo of each type of fish including the goldfish, the two boys counted the fish as best they could, and Mr. Pincus took many notes.  About an hour later, Mr. Pincus announced he was done, and it was time to leave.  This time, Mr. Pincus and Natalie walked ahead and the two boys lingered behind chatting about all the fish and the people.   

As she walked, Natalie held onto her phone in her pocket with its precious photos stored inside.  Even though her pocket had a zipper that would keep the camera safe, she held it as though it might fall through a hole in her pocket that she knew didn’t exist and the photos would be lost.  The photos were key to the investigation, and she didn’t want anything happening to them. 

In the meantime, Mr. Pincus whose clothes were now dry, walked quickly in his rubber boots, and Natalie was having a hard time keeping up.  Partly due to curiosity and partly to engage him in conversation hoping to slow him, Natalie asked what happens next.

In between deep breaths, Mr. Pincus told her he is going  to recommend a full investigation, and that he will return tomorrow with a team to collect some fish and get an accurate count of the deaths.  In addition, they will collect sediment samples for lead analysis.  Then they will pursue a natural resource damage claim against Mr. Jones. 

This took Mr. Pincus several minutes to explain, and his pace slowed a little much to Natalie’s relief, so she asked how much the claim would be.  He said it was a good question.  They would calculate the amount by determining how much it would cost to restore the river to its original condition and look at the type and quantity of animals that had died.  Natalie, still struggling to keep up, waitEd for Mr. Pincus to finish with an amount, but he remained silent.  So she pushed a little asking him to guess the amount.  Mr. Pincus frowned and said there were a lot of dead fish.  Perhaps $5,000 for the investigation and to re-stock the river, plus about $10,000 to clean up any lead that may be left behind.  Natalie was impressed.  $15,000 was a lot of money, but Mr. Pincus laughed and disagreed.  He told her that this spill was relatively small.  Big spills can cost millions of dollars to clean up and restore the natural habitat.

 They soon reached the battery shop, and Mr. Pincus immediately began to cross the river.  The three kids hesitated. 

“What’s the matter?” he asked looking back at the three kids. 

Natalie answered shyly, “Well, Mr. Jones was really mad at us earlier.  We don’t think he wants us around.” 

“Hmm, I see your point,” Mr. Pincus said thoughtfully.  Then his eyes light up and he said, “Well, you have federal evidence in your camera, Natalie, and you’ve all been helping with my investigation.  That’s makes you honorary federal agents for today.  Mr. Jones won’t mess with you when he knows you’re with me.” 

Natalie and the two boys smiled, and they agreed to follow him to his car and hand over the evidence.

 When they reached the top of the bank, the three kids looked around nervously.  Jason noted that the fire department was gone, and Natalie added that the flatbed truck with the flattened tank was gone as well.  In fact the placed looked deserted to their great relief. 

They followed Mr. Pincus to his car where he pulled out his laptop computer and turned it on. 

“OK,” he said “Natalie, have you ever sent photos from your phone to a computer?”  Natalie answered yes. 

“Good,” Mr. Pincus said, “Because I wouldn’t have a clue how to do it.”  The three kids laughed and relaxed a little. 

Natalie took over from there.  “This is going to take a while because we’ve got a lot of photos.  What is your email address?” she asked while pushing several buttons.  He told her and Natalie entered it into her phone and pushed one last button. 

“Here they come,” she said.  They all looked at the computer screen and slowly, one-by-one, the files popped up in the email folder.  Mr. Pincus clicked on one of the files and a picture of several dead trout appeared on the screen. 

“Excellent!” cried Mr. Pincus.  “You guys are fantastic!”

 Just then they heard a door at the recycling facility slam behind them, and they jumped up.  Mr. Jones had just come out the back door and was walking quickly toward them.  He looked so mad he could have whipped a bear. 

“What are you kids doing on my property?!” he yelled. 

Mr. Pincus stepped in front of the kids and said, “They are helping me with my assessment of the damage.  There’s a lot of dead fish downstream.” 

Mr. Jones didn’t hesitate for a moment and strode right up to Mr. Pincus. “I don’t care about any dead fish, and I want you off of my property now!” 

Natalie was shocked at Mr. Jones behavior earlier in the day, but now she was getting mad.    Impulsively, she took a step toward Mr. Jones and looked up at him unflinching, said, “Do you know your acid burned our legs, and that we all had to go to the hospital earlier today?” she said.  “Look at my legs!” she continued, “They’re all red and sore!”  Mr. Jones looked down at Natalie’s legs and suddenly looked shaken.  “I … I’m sorry,” he stuttered.  “I didn’t know anyone got hurt.  Are you OK?” 

Natalie paused.  She wanted to tell Mr. Jones what was on her mind, that he didn’t take care of his tank properly, and that he had ruined a beautiful river, but something inside told her that Mr. Jones would probably just yell louder and get angrier.  Instead she spoke calmly but firmly, “The doctor said we should be fine.  Thank you for asking.”  Then Natalie turned to Mr. Pincus and said, “I believe we are done.  Jason, Mike, and I would like to go home now.”  Mr. Pincus nodded, “I’m going to pack up and go myself.”  Natalie shook Mr. Pincus’ hand and then to everyone’s surprise, she offered her hand to Mr. Jones.  Mr. Jones looked at her, not with an angry face but with a look of surprise and amazement.  He shook her hand politely and said he was sorry again.  Then the three kids turned and walked toward the river toward home. Over her shoulder Natalie heard Mr. Jones say, “She is an amazing girl"