Testing schools for PCBs is inadequate

Hi,

I saw that you posted about the recent study that showed 3 out of 3 NYC schools tested for PCBs had levels above the federal standards. PCBs were most commonly used in construction materials between 1950 and 1978. During that time period approximately 750 Public Schools were either built or renovated (Here is a link to a list of schools built or renovated in that time period). But the DOE's only response so far is to test two schools next summer.

NYCC joined with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to demand that the DOE tests all schools possibly contaminated with PCBs and devise an aggressive plan for remediation.

Best,

Olivia Leirer
Online Outreach Coordinator
New York Communities for Change.

PCBs still in some schools

From NY1:

Three city schools have been found to contain higher-than-acceptable levels of PCBs.

Tests indicate P.S. 199 in Manhattan, P.S. 178 in the Bronx and P.S. 309 in Brooklyn contain PCB amounts exceeding federal guidelines.

The Department of Education says air samples improved after caulking and other material containing PCBs were removed.

The three schools were the only ones of the more than 1,500 city schools tested as part of a three-agency agreement between the Department of Education, the city's School Construction Authority, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Two more schools will be tested next year.

PCBs were used in school construction and electrical materials from the 1950s until 1978.

Long-term exposure can cause cancer and other health problems.

College Point superfund site examined

From the Queens Courier:

After years of study, a 10,000-square-foot “hot spot” in the midst of Riverview Homes, 121st Street, north of 5th Avenue, was declared a “Superfund” site by DEP in April – because Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)-contaminated oil was found in the soil in 2007.

The area is called “College Point 3” in DEP reports, and is bounded by Riviera Court to the north, Capstan Court to the east, Cove Court to the south, and College Point Properties’ Soundview Pointe development to the west.

Much of this now-prime residential real estate north of 5th and Lax Avenues was created by a generation of illegal dumping, according to longtime resident Gary Bonelli, now a principal of LandServ Environmental Group in Long Island City.

“For years, the property owners turned a blind eye and allowed trucks to dump anything – rubble from gas stations, drums from factories. It was before the Clean Air Act and that section was basically one big junkyard.”

According to DEP spokesperson Maureen Wren, the Superfund designation “is the state’s program for identifying, investigating and cleaning up sites where consequential amounts of hazardous waste may exist.”

The next step in the process, she explained, “will be a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study to determine a final cleanup approach.”

Existing Riverview homes were tested and “the New York State Department of Health determined that no further action was required,” Wren said.

“The Soundview homes are safe,” said James Cervino, a scientist with LandServ who grew up in College Point. “The builder was forced to do a thorough clean-up before construction.” However, he explained, “Stuff was oozing into excavations from the adjacent property, so the developer sunk a barrier into the ground to keep it out.”

One problem, Cervino believes, is that the oily goo may migrate in other directions now that it is blocked from the Soundview site – even into the Powells Cove Estates site to the east.

Another problem is that, according to longtime residents, somewhere under all that dumped soil, lies an old barge that may be laden with a large quantity of unknown contaminants.

DEP acknowledges that “because of its proximity to the East River and Long Island Sound, this site presents a significant threat to the environment.”

Parks says contaminated Brooklyn park is now safe

From the Courier-Life:

Moving quickly after state environmental workers discovered cancer-causing chemicals near the popular park, the city tested the soil — and declared the grounds safe on Wednesday.

Department of Health workers dug down two inches at 18 spots in and around the two soccer fields closest to the alleged source of the contamination — a defunct plastic additive manufacturing plant at Court and Halleck streets.

None of the samples revealed PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, the once-ubiquitous compounds that were banned in the 1970s after they were discovered to cause cancer.

The operator of the plant, the now-bankrupt Chemtura Corporation, is being sued by the state to continue its abandoned clean-up of PCBs, which were discovered seven feet underground and in groundwater near the park, court papers show.

Despite the city testing, residents were not sold on the safety of the park, which is packed with soccer players and food vendor customers every weekend.

PCBs found in Red Hook park

From the NY Post:

The grassy fields of a park in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn are contaminated with PCBs at a level 110 times what New York environmental agencies consider safe, according to court records filed in a lawsuit by New York and six other states against bankrupt Chemtura Corp.

Linked to liver cancer, low birth weight and loss of motor skills, PCBs pose a threat to park visitors and nearby residents, said Judith Schreiber, chief scientist in the State Attorney General's Environmental Bureau.

State and city health and environmental agencies declined to comment or said they weren't aware of the risks at the 58-acre park, a popular spot for soccer games and family picnics.

Chemtura has resisted demands by the state environmental bureau that it clean up contamination from a leak at its plant, which abuts the park.

"Contamination at the site and in or near the recreation area is at unacceptable levels from a human-exposure perspective," Schreiber wrote in an April 22 affidavit in Manhattan federal court.

Gentrification of the area over the last 15 years has coincided with the opening of large retail outlets, including an Ikea furniture store and a Fairway supermarket, a passenger cruise-ship terminal, cafes and wine stores.

With the neighborhood's resurgence, use of the contaminated park has increased. Red Hook Park hosts soccer tournaments and food vendors that draw large crowds.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been banned since 1979. The chemical doesn't break down easily, building up in human and animal tissue, as well as in food chains.

Regulators have fought for a decade with Chemtura and the plant's former owner, Crompton Corp., which merged with another firm in 2005 to form the now-bankrupt company.

Too expensive to remove PCBs from schools

From the Daily News:

The Environmental Protection Agency might scrap a 30-year-old safety standard because it's likely too expensive to enforce in schools, the News has learned.

Just months after the agency ordered the city education department to study the risk of toxin exposure to students, the EPA has scheduled a hearing to change the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) allowed in caulking.

PCBs, known to cause cancer and birth defects, were routinely used in caulking before they were banned for most uses in 1979. Since then, anything with more than 50 parts-per-million has been considered toxic.

A 2008 News investigation found PCB levels as high as 225,000 ppm in the caulk of several public schools. The city's own tests have since found levels more than twice that high.

The EPA is now seeking comment at a May 4 hearing on changing that standard "given the recent realization that the use of PCBs in caulk may be widespread and may be an undue burden for schools if the exclusion continues at 50 ppm," according to the April 7 Federal Register.

EPA studying PCBs in city schools

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency and New York City have announced a pilot program to address the problem of potentially hazardous PCBs in construction materials in some city schools.

According to the EPA, hundreds of schools across the United States have caulk around windows and doors that contain PCBs.

Under the agreement announced Tuesday, New York City will conduct a pilot program in five schools to determine the best way to minimize exposure to PCB-contaminated caulk.

PCBs are formally known as polychlorinated biphenyls. They are chemicals that were widely used in construction and electrical materials before they were banned in the late 1970s.

PCBs can hurt the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems and can cause cancer if they build up in the body over long periods of time.