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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — The superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is calling for immediate air quality testing at two middle schools located near a hazardous waste site.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1yO9EYK) Superintendent Beverly Emory recommended the testing for Hanes and Lowrance middle schools on Tuesday as parents urged school officials to shut the schools down.
Emory's call comes days after the newspaper reported that the two schools are located near a hazardous waste site that state regulators have flagged as one of the worst in North Carolina. System officials had planned to build a $15.4 million school on the site to replace Lowrance.
Some parents said they won't be sending their children back to the school. Others said they wouldn't attend a parent meeting scheduled for Wednesday night at the school.
An underground plume of contamination has been moving in the groundwater toward the schools over the past few years, according to documents obtained by the newspaper and officials with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. One monitoring well, about 150 feet east of Hanes, showed one cancer-linked toxin known as PCE more than 11,000 times above state safety standards in March 2014.
The chemicals in the groundwater can turn into vapor and seep into buildings.
Indoor-air tests were done in eight classrooms and one outdoor pod on one day in March 2014 following seven years of no testing. From 2005 to 2007, another series of tests were done. Although the results showed no significant red flags, according to DENR officials, many parents were irate that the school system has not tested more frequently or informed parents about what is underneath their children's' schools.
Emory said the new round of air quality tests the district will conduct is to help assuage community concerns, not because it feels the buildings are not safe.
"The reason is not that we feel it's not a safe building or that we were not following the regulations at the time," she said. "All we can do is go forward and you're not going to believe the people we've had doing this prior."
Emory said the district is in the process of looking for a new consultant to bring on for the testing and will not use anyone that has been associated with the district or previous monitoring. The district is also creating a website for information and documentation about the site. It was expected to go live on Wednesday.
Emory said the district will wait until it gets test results back before it makes any decisions about accommodations for families who want to pull their children from the school. Emory said that if tests do not raise any concerns, it may not make any such allowances.
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Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, http://www.journalnow.com
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