#22 - Shortly after the Persian Gulf War, investigators

[Adam Tyson]

It's not contradictory at all, Christmaspuppy, because the data was gathered shortly after the war, a period during which regular oil production had slowed. It may be that with the return of peace the area will see a return to pre-war levels of oil dumping and emissions of PAHs, but at the moment we are seeing the aftereffects of a period of less of that activity. The paradox is that it sounds like we should have expected higher levels than before the war, and instead we found lower levels, so we need an answer that explains how right now, just after the war ended, the levels could be lower than beforehand. An answer that suggests even higher contamination during regular oil production does exactly that!

Short answer: it's not an on/off switch, with contamination immediately returning to prewar levels the moment the war ends, but about the accumulated effects over a period during which less contamination occurred than usual.