Source: http://www.timesherald.com, May 19, 2015
By: Eric Devlin
Phoenixville School District officials say contaminated soil found at the site of its incoming elementary school is being removed safely.
“It’s not like some toxic waste dump,” school board member Ken Butera said at Thursday night’s meeting.
Four weeks ago, environmental experts discovered elevated levels of the chemicals mercury and arsenic in the soil of eight of the 11 greens at the former Meadow Brook Golf Club. That site will become the home of the Early Learning Center and Elementary School, and is set to break ground later this year.
Now the district says environmental experts have begun carefully removing the toxic soil from the site and it is keeping a watchful eye to make sure the community stays safe.
“In general the Meadow Brook Golf Course is a very clean site,” said Stanley Johnson, the district’s executive director of operations. “It’s not full of environmental issues, fortunately. What we have here is a problem that appears to be confined just to the greens.”
The district said this situation is not the same as the proposed Kimberton Elementary School, which was purchased in February 2005 and eventually abandoned in 2008 allegedly due to concerns surrounding possible site contamination and high costs associated with cleaning it up.
“The remediation of this is simple,” said board member Joshua Gould. “Remove the soil and take it to a place that will accept it … This isn’t similar to the Kimberton site, which was not able to be remediated … this is just pick up some soil and take it to a dump that will take it and you’re done.”
It does mean, however, that the environmental remediation line item will increase the school’s budget from $400,000 to $600,000, Johnson said, for soil disposal and additional work. He has alerted the board about the additional cost and it has OK’d the price increase.
The district says it has known about the arsenic contamination for years, but not the mercury contamination until just recently.
In 2008, the district entered into active negotiations with Meadow Brook to acquire the property for the new school. In order for a public agency to obtain a property, Johnson said, an environmental study of the grounds needs to be completed. Test results showed above-normal levels of arsenic on the greens that were used in the various insecticides the golf club sprayed on the green.
“Arsenic is a naturally occurring substance,” Johnson said. “You’ll find arsenic virtually everywhere. What they found on the golf course greens were levels elevated.”
Johnson explained there are various degrees of arsenic exposure, ranging from what’s called alert levels to emergency levels, meaning “you essentially poured pure arsenic onto the ground. And that’s not what happened.” Instead, alert levels of arsenic were found. Additionally, arsenic is considered a heavy metal and tends to stick well to surfaces without moving far in nature.
“It’s not like if you have arsenic on a green that it’s going to run off of the green into the earth that’s adjacent to the greens,” he said. “It’s going to stick the earth that’s in the greens.”
Once the arsenic was discovered, experts notified the district that the site had to be cleaned up before a school could be built. Negotiations between the district and the golf club, meanwhile, broke down. Then in 2013, when a settlement between the two sides still couldn’t be reached, the district acquired the golf course through eminent domain.
Afterward, the district hired Environmental Standards Inc. of Phoenixville, to begin the cleanup efforts.
According to Johnson, there are two ways to remove arsenic contaminated soil: haul it away to a certified landfill or dig a hole and put the soil into the hole. The school board believed it was better to haul it away, even if it was more expensive to do so.
When the removal company, Coventry, won the hauling bid, it was required by the landfill to certify that the soil it was taking only contained arsenic. The soil was tested again four weeks ago. This time tests showed, in addition to arsenic, above-normal levels of mercury.
“There was no evidence of mercury on the fairways or the T-boxes,” Johnson said. “Just the greens.” The mercury was believed to have been used in the fungicides on the greens.
“Mercury was commonly used on golf courses,” Butera said Thursday. “It’s not a real shock. Overall, all the experts agree it’s still a clean site. It’s not like some toxic waste dump.”
Luckily, just like arsenic, mercury is a naturally occurring metal and tends to stick to the ground without running. This meant the soil could still be hauled away, but it had to be taken to new landfill, as the original landfill was not licensed to handle mercury contaminated soil.
Unfortunately, because mercury is dangerous if it’s goes airborne, it means the site has to be constantly monitored and hosed down to keep from generating dust. It also means each of the moving trucks will have to be cleaned regularly and kept away from the contaminated greens. Tarps will also be used to cover the soil once it’s loaded onto the trucks, Johnson said.
“We’re trying to keep the problem contained to the site,” he said. “And then at the landfill.”
While the district says it is doing everything it can, it encouraged concerned neighbors with questions or concerns to contact Environmental Standards directly.
“My belief is the approach the district has followed has been a responsible one,” Johnson said. “When we’ve been made aware of additional contamination, we’ve acted on it. We’ve taken test samples. We’ve had those samples analyzed and we have taken corrective actions on our mitigation plans.”
“We’re doing everything we can do to keep neighbors safe,” board member Kevin Pattinson said Thursday.