Parents allegedly discover contamination near proposed Central School site
Published on February 2nd, 2000
STONEHAM, MA - A group of parents concerned with the safety of the site proposed for the new Central School took matters into their own hands and forced selectmen to do what months of talking could not accomplish — testing of the nearby railroad bed.
Selectmen will ask the Peabody-based environmental engineering firm of Weston and Sampson to retest samples parents Bob Weisbrod and Cheryl Walsh took from the Central Street site.
The parents, completely on their own, took soil samples from the site and sent them to a lab for analysis. The analysis allegedly reveals some contamination. Now that town officials have knowledge of contaminants, the town is liable for resultant problems. The town may have to do extensive testing along the railroad right of way throughout Stoneham, depending on what the Department of Environmental Protection advises or mandates.
Town Administrator Jeff Nutting said selectmen have asked the Finance and Advisory Board for an Emergency Fund transfer of $12,000 and may need more.
The parents group, calling themselves the Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools, researched the history of the area surrounding the proposed school location several months ago and raised questions about ground contamination based on the past uses of the land — tanneries, chemical companies and a railroad bed.
Selectmen and Building Committee members assured citizens that the land the school would sit on was safe after the Department of Environmental Protection cleared the land for use. But not everybody was satisfied.
The town and school department are working under the gun to begin construction on the Central School in order to keep the four-school School Building Assistance Bureau project moving forward. All the schools must be under construction by 2002 for the town to receive the 63 percent reimbursement funding from the state.
Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools thought the town was moving too quickly, and the group asked for further testing around the school site, specifically on an easement granted from owners of the former Mann Chemical Company and the railroad bed.
Selectmen said representatives of the parents group could join them in choosing a firm and reviewing the 11 previous studies, which had been conducted on areas of the site. The agreement was that everyone had to agree to accept the findings of the outside party picked to study the site.
The agreement crumbled when the town chose Weston and Sampson Engineers, Inc., a firm the town had used in the past.
Walsh reiterated her desire to hire another firm for future testing but selectmen are sticking with Weston and Sampson.
The parents were angry about being left out of the original selection process and wary of how the firm would conduct business.
Weston and Sampson decided that no further testing was necessary on the easement. (The town also has no legal authority to test this land.)
Testing of the groundwater for metals, pesticides and other contaminants "would not be necessary," according to the report, "based on the groundwater direction and the low solubility of these compounds to dissolve in water." Testing of the soil "is not necessary due to the inaccessibility of the subsurface soil and the placement of additional fill," the report continues. Fill will be added as part of the building process.
Weston and Sampson also recommended not testing the railroad bed, suggesting a fence.
The report says, "If access to the railroad is controlled or eliminated, exposure of the soil to children will be minimized."
There were no new laboratory analyses of samples.
At the selectmen's meeting when the town had offered to work together with the Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools, the parents group had offered the town the assistance of the Toxics Action Center. A representative of the non-profit environmental agency, Bernadette Del Chiaro, offered a list of firms who could review the site.
"I never saw the list," Town Administrator Jeff Nutting said. So Weston and Sampson got the call.
Del Chiaro reviewed Weston and Sampson's findings.
"The bottom line is they don't know how safe the children are because they don't know how contaminated the soil or ground water is at the easement or railroad bed," Del Chiaro said.
She points to the fact that the company acknowledges contamination of the railroad bed by asking for a fence but does not bother to test the area to determine how contaminated and, thus, how dangerous it is.
The question of how safe the site is remains open. But this does not mean that the area is necessarily a horrific danger to the children of Stoneham. It may be safe enough for a school. In fact, the Middle School sits adjacent to the site.
Finance and Advisory Committee member John Warren reminded citizens at an earlier selectmen's meeting that whereas the contaminated area in Woburn which the world knows today from "A Civil Action" was a federal Superfund site still closed down to this day from which 1700 tons of soil and 150 million gallons of water were removed, remediation to date on the areas next to the proposed school site has involved the removal of 20 cubic yards of soil and 300 gallons of water. The site was handled by the state and cleared for use.
"People have to understand that there is a big difference," Warren said.
No remediation has ever been required on the actual Central School site.
Other citizens have said all areas of town probably have some contaminants. Expert sources agree with this statement.
So is the school safe?
Maybe. No evidence said it is not, but for some parents this was not good enough. Now more testing will be done.
Meanwhile, plans to begin work on the Central school are moving forward. The construction job goes out to bid on Feb. 22.
If it turns out the whole site is a disaster, then the school will have to wait, but officials remain optimistic.
And if it turns out the samples show zero or acceptable levels of contaminants in the easement and railroad bed, Weisbrod said his group would be satisfied.
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