Glynn schedules schoolyard cleanup

There is no evidence that any students or school staff have gotten sick from exposure to the residue, benzo(a)pyrene, according to Glynn school administrators and environmental officials.

"You would have to eat the dirt or inhale the dirt for a long time before becoming sick," Al Boudreau, school system facilities director, said Wednesday.

"This doesn't smell or look contaminated. If it wasn't for an analysis, you wouldn't even know it was there in the soil," Boudreau said.

The county Board of Education in a 6-1 vote Tuesday night authorized spending $175,000 for the schoolyard cleanup, which Boudreau said should be completed within two weeks.

Board member Earl Perry opposed the measure. Before the vote, Perry said the school board should put the project out for bid.

Boudreau told the board that there was no time to go through the bidding process. The cleanup needs to begin immediately or it won't be finished in time for the school to reopen Aug. 10, he said.

Boudreau also said officials previously had researched the cost of such a cleanup. The work will be done "at a reasonable and competitive price" by a company that previously has worked with EMC Engineering Services Inc. of Savannah, which was hired by the board to oversee the project, Boudreau told the board.

Benzo(a)pyrene has been the only potentially hazardous chemical found at the schoolyard in levels warranting action under state or federal environmental regulations, according to John Patrick, company project geologist.

The substance is among a group of compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The residue is formed during the incomplete burning of meat, coal, oil, gasoline, charcoal or even organic substances such as tobacco, EPA data showed.

Lifetime exposure to high concentrations of the substance can cause cancer and other health problems, according to the agency.

Patrick told the school board that soil analysis found concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene exceeding 1,640 parts per billion -- the level at which environmental regulations mandate removal -- in the schoolyard.

The contamination extended from 1 to 4 feet down into the ground in areas totaling about 800 cubic yards. Some contamination was detected in the school's courtyard and near the building's foundation, Patrick said.

No other harmful chemicals were found in the soil, Boudreau said.

The school has about 450 students, plus 80 teachers and staff. As a precaution since April, when the issue arose, Goodyear students were bused to a nearby city park or went to the school's gymnasium for recess.

The cleanup plan calls for the removal of up to 2,400 cubic yards of contaminated soil. As an added precaution, workers will remove any soil with as little as 1,000 parts per billionof the residue, Boudreau said. It will be replaced with clean dirt.

The chemical residue apparently was in fill dirt and topsoil trucked in when the original building was torn down in 1997 and replaced with the current school, Patrick and Boudreau said.

"This is very definitely foreign material brought into the site," Patrick said.

Board Chairwoman LaVerne Cooper said the panel is exploring the possibilty of suing the company or individuals responsible for providing the contaminated dirt.

"We are looking at if we have any legal recourse to recover the cost of the testing and cleanup," Cooper said.