1.   And companies have been given wide discretion on how many trench breakers are installed.

2.   Gary Davis, the chief Iroquois spokesman, does not deny that rocks wound up in the trench and that trench breakers were omitted.

3.   Safety devices known as trench breakers -- intended to prevent water from collecting underground and eroding the soil supporting the pipe -- were omitted.

4.   These documents also show that Iroquois supervisors were telling workers to skip trench breakers.

5.   Within the industry, there is a broad spectrum of views on backfilling rocks and on regularly spacing trench breakers.