Rules leave monitoring up to chemical makers
       By Victoria Churchville
           of the SENTINEL STAFF

..  Temik's proven potential  to poison drinking water may be it's most frightening aspect.

  " I'm  sure  there are  problems. We just haven't looked for them," said  Jeff Watts, the DER   groundwater  specialist. " Like I said,  we've  only got eight people  in the groundwater section."....   

  Federal law virtually  ignores  groundwater.  The Safe Drinking Water Act  requires that cities check their water  supplies  once every three years for six specific pesticides and report test  results to the  DER.   The department  then rechecks the samples through a state -certified laboratory.

..  The possibility of  groundwater  contamination by the  other 8,994  pesticide formulas used in the state goes unchecked year after year. Temik is not among those pesticides being checked....