Central School construction move forward, DEP to clean tainted railroad bed
Published on April 12th, 2000
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools, the Town Administrator and the School Committee agree:
The new Central School will be built. Contamination was found in the railroad bed behind the school. The town will pay to have the area cleaned. Parents are satisfied that the school will be safe.
"I think all questions were answered," said School Committee member Mary Pecoraro after an April 6 meeting about the site.
Before the meeting many doubted the future safety and quality of Stoneham elementary education. But this long story is fast approaching a happy ending.
The history
After the School Department identified the Central Street site for the new Central elementary school more than a year ago, parents began to ask questions about the area. A chemical company had operated nearby for years and leather treatment facilities surrounded the area around the turn of the century.
The School Department had the land tested, and after finding no contamination, plans to design and build the school moved forward.
Then in late 1999 a parents group formed which asked questions about past tests. Parents Bob Weisbrod of Beacon Street and Cheryl Walsh of Brookbridge Road led a group of parents who alleged that the tests were incomplete.
After much debate selectmen asked Town Administrator Jeff Nutting to bring the parents group, calling themselves Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools, into the process. The board asked Nutting and the parents to choose a firm to resolve any lingering doubt about the school site.
Nutting said he chose Weston and Sampson Engineers, Inc. of Peabody because the company had a good reputation and he wanted to expedite the process, which was at this point threatening to set back the construction bid schedule.
Delaying the construction of Central could have thrown off the School Department's overall elementary school rebuilding project. The new Central School is needed to house the old Central School students while the old Central Schoolhouses the Robin Hood and Colonial Park kids. These moves will be made so the new Robin Hood and Colonial Park Schools can be built in 2001 and 2002.
Construction must be underway on these schools when they come up on the State School Building Assistance Bureau funding list to get 63 percent state reimbursement. Delays could have meant a funding crisis for Stoneham.
But, in February the parents did not feel Weston and Sampson provided a comprehensive evaluation. The firm reviewed old studies but did not test soil from any new borings.
Then the Parents for Healthy Schools group took its own sample.
This action may have been illegal, but the parents found toxins on the railroad right of way behind the school site, and the selectmen asked Nutting to work with the parents to find another licensed site professional to examine the site.
Gale Associates of Pembroke got the call in March.
"I trust them," Walsh said in an earlier interview.
Licensed Site Professional Jim Luker of Gale took 10 new borings on and around the school site and railroad bed.
The tests
Four of the 10 borings contained levels of different contamination.
Absolutely no contamination was found on the proposed footprint of the new school building or on the school property where a "tot lot" plays area is planned.
"No contamination was found on school property," said Superintendent Joe Connelly.
Also, Walsh stated that the contamination that was found on the railroad bed "is not the type that will seep or spread," according to her discussions with Gale.
But arsenic and poly aromatic hydrocarbons were found on the railroad bed, which is town property.
Poly aromatic hyrdocarbons cause cancer in lab rats, but arsenic, ingested or inhaled in more than 60 parts per million, can kill people, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry.
Boring 3 in the railroad bed behind the school revealed 210 parts per million of arsenic six inches beneath the surface.
Two other borings along the railroad bed also had over 30 parts per million of arsenic.
Discovery of more than 30 parts per million at six inches requires notifying the Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP then oversees a mandatory "Immediate Response Plan," which includes more thorough testing of the area and subsequent remediation.
Gale is doing the additional testing under the Immediate Response Plan overseen by DEP Case Manager Scott Green.
What now?
After the testing is done and results return in 30 to 60 days, the experts have indicated one of two possibilities: the contaminated soil will be covered and sealed or the soil will be removed and sent to a site accepting toxic materials.
"Either way, the area behind the school will be fenced off," Connelly said.
The School Department will disturb only a 10-foot strip of soil in the affected area behind the school during construction to set up staging. For this the School Department, Connelly said, will add an addendum to the Central School construction project for air filters, monitors and any other recommended safety precautions.
The town will have to pay to seal or cart away soil. The cost of remediation is unclear, but Luker estimated a figure of $75 to $250 per ton depending on the necessary depth of excavation, if that option is required.
There is a lot of dirt back there; the easement is 15 feet and runs around 500 feet just behind the school property, but if there's poison in the ground everybody agrees it cannot be ignored.
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