By Richard Kaufman
Earlier this week, Greenwich Public Schools released an update on the environmental testing of the Western Middle School fields.
According to the update, testing remains ongoing as Langan, the Town’s environmental consultant, continues to evaluate the extent of impacted soil at the fields.
After recent discussions with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT-DEEP), the State Department of Public Health (DPH) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA), it was determined that additional characterization sampling (including groundwater sampling) will be performed at the school over the summer.
Following site characterization activities, Langan will develop remediation work plans for the fields that will likely include:
- Development and execution of action plans for the protection of students, faculty, on-site workers, community, and the environment during soil disturbance activities;
- Excavation and off-site disposal of soils;
- Placement of a highly visible demarcation barrier (e.g. orange snow fencing) between residual site material and imported certified clean backfill material; and
- Backfilling of remedial excavation areas to grade with imported certified clean fill.
Once the remedial action plan has been drafted, it will be submitted to the regulatory agencies for review and concurrence. The timeframe for the approval and implementation of the plan is based on the review schedule for US-EPA and CT-DEEP, and any additional requests the agencies might have.
Background
Back in the summer of 2016, soil samples were collected from the WMS fields that detected concentration of environmental constituents that exceeded CT-DEEP Residential Direct Exposure Criteria (RDEC) in portions of the fields.
However, the concentrations of constituents didn’t exceed Federal or State regulatory thresholds requiring immediate reporting or action at that time. But after initial consultation with the Town and State Departments of Public Health, the fields were closed as a precautionary measure.
Subsequent evaluation of the soils under the field were completed in November of 2016, and indicated concentrations of PCBs above CT’s RDEC of 1 mg/kg at three grid locations o the field.
At one of the three locations, soil samples were reported to contain concentrations of PCBs above the CT Significant Environmental Hazard (SEH) threshold of 15 mg/kg (15 times the RDEC) and above the federal Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) reporting threshold of 50 mg/kg.
These findings required consultation with the EPA and initiated ongoing sampling and analysis in order to fully delineate the site to understand the extend of the impacted soil.
Greenwich Public Schools will continue to provide updates to the community as new results and information become available.
For more information, visit the GPS website at greenwichschools.org/wmsfields.
