Brunswick News

January 10, 2008

Editorial Federal agency should honor request

School’s soil testing

needs to be done now

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it wants to sit down with Superintendent of Schools Michael Bull and talk turkey about Altama Elementary School. As most will recall, there is some concern among education officials about what might be in the soil at the Altama Avenue school.

It is uncertain at this time what the federal agency will have to say following an official request by the school system that it thoroughly test the grounds at the elementary school. There are some suspicions that there may be some potentially dangerous pollutants in the soil, given its close proximity to the toxaphene disposal area adjacent to the school.  Toxaphene, produced by Hercules in Brunswick and banned in the 1980s, is a carcinogen.

No valid, comprehensive soil sampling and test has been done at Altama Elementary to date, not by the Environmental Protection Agency or anyone else.

That’s at least curious if not outright absurd, considering that the grounds are a play area for children up through grade five.

Superintendent Bull has requested that the agency adequately and properly test the earth, and the sooner the better, instead of relying on sampling that failed to check for the very pollutants that are suspected to be present.

It is incumbent upon the federal agency to honor the request.

Its mission, as stated on its Web site, is “to protect human health and the environment.”

The community has seen and heard enough bureaucratic red tape and discussion.

The time for action is now.

Test the soil.