Arsenic cleanup set to begin at high school - After delays, workers expect to finish in May (by Mark Abramson, Daily News)
After months of delays, the arsenic cleanup at Burlingame High School is slated to start next week and is expected to cause some parking headaches, San Mateo Union High School District officials said Tuesday. The cleanup at seven locations around the campus at 1 Mangini Way, including the front lawn off of Carolan Avenue, should be done by late April or early May, depending on the weather, said Todd Lee, construction manager for Greystone West. Co., the Sonoma-based consulting firm the district hired to oversee the work.
Last spring, district officials said they expected the entire $4.2 million cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls, oil, arsenic and other toxins to be completed in August. But funding problems and other obstacles delayed the project. Now that the district has received a $2.6 million state grant and the approval of various state agencies, it is ready to proceed with the work.
The arsenic cleanup entails removing and replacing about 3,000 cubic yards of soil at a cost of $1.2 million. Another $976,000 will be spent on replacing one field near Oak Grove Avenue with artificial turf. The field has been and will continue to be used as a practice area for the lacrosse teams. "We have been anticipating for it to be done for months now," said Linda Carlton, a parent who helped start the lacrosse program last year. "The field should be completed by the end of February or early March. It will affect our practices, however, for the month of February. We have made arrangements to use Murray Field."
One of the challenges of the work has been finding a way to save the Redwood, Monterey cypress and other trees on the front lawn, Lee said. "This is an extraordinarily complex matter," said Elizabeth McManus, the district's associate superintendent for business services. "If (the lawn) didn't have those trees, it would lose its charm."
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and other agencies approved a plan for the school to use a steel mesh barrier below the surface of the front lawn, which will protect the trees there by decreasing the amount of excavation that needs to be done and should prevent arsenic from resurfacing, Lee said.
One unavoidable impact of the arsenic cleanup, however, will be on parking, McManus said. Parking will have to be reduced along Carolan Avenue, Oak Grove Avenue and in other areas because of the truck traffic related to the work. "It's going to be a nuisance for us students who drive," said senior Stephen Merchant, 17. He said he thinks students will have to park behind the school, but that it should be easier for seniors to deal with because they have their own lot. Merchant says he hasn't been inconvenienced by the clean-up efforts at the school so far. "The only real noticeable thing about the cleanup is there is a chain-link fence around the front lawn," Stephen said. "It's kind of an eyesore."
Merchant's mother, Pamela Merchant, who is the president of the BHS Parents Group, said parents are concerned about how the arsenic cleanup will affect the school's aesthetics, because the plan calls for dirt to be piled up in the front lawn before it is hauled away. She also has a freshman son, Greg, 14, at BHS, and her daughter Caroline, 16, is a junior. "The school has been very good about keeping us posted," Merchant said. "I think their hands have been tied because it's being taken care of by the state, and there have been a holdups and delays."
After months of delays, the arsenic cleanup at Burlingame High School is slated to start next week and is expected to cause some parking headaches, San Mateo Union High School District officials said Tuesday. The cleanup at seven locations around the campus at 1 Mangini Way, including the front lawn off of Carolan Avenue, should be done by late April or early May, depending on the weather, said Todd Lee, construction manager for Greystone West. Co., the Sonoma-based consulting firm the district hired to oversee the work.
Last spring, district officials said they expected the entire $4.2 million cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls, oil, arsenic and other toxins to be completed in August. But funding problems and other obstacles delayed the project. Now that the district has received a $2.6 million state grant and the approval of various state agencies, it is ready to proceed with the work.
The arsenic cleanup entails removing and replacing about 3,000 cubic yards of soil at a cost of $1.2 million. Another $976,000 will be spent on replacing one field near Oak Grove Avenue with artificial turf. The field has been and will continue to be used as a practice area for the lacrosse teams. "We have been anticipating for it to be done for months now," said Linda Carlton, a parent who helped start the lacrosse program last year. "The field should be completed by the end of February or early March. It will affect our practices, however, for the month of February. We have made arrangements to use Murray Field."
One of the challenges of the work has been finding a way to save the Redwood, Monterey cypress and other trees on the front lawn, Lee said. "This is an extraordinarily complex matter," said Elizabeth McManus, the district's associate superintendent for business services. "If (the lawn) didn't have those trees, it would lose its charm."
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and other agencies approved a plan for the school to use a steel mesh barrier below the surface of the front lawn, which will protect the trees there by decreasing the amount of excavation that needs to be done and should prevent arsenic from resurfacing, Lee said.
One unavoidable impact of the arsenic cleanup, however, will be on parking, McManus said. Parking will have to be reduced along Carolan Avenue, Oak Grove Avenue and in other areas because of the truck traffic related to the work. "It's going to be a nuisance for us students who drive," said senior Stephen Merchant, 17. He said he thinks students will have to park behind the school, but that it should be easier for seniors to deal with because they have their own lot. Merchant says he hasn't been inconvenienced by the clean-up efforts at the school so far. "The only real noticeable thing about the cleanup is there is a chain-link fence around the front lawn," Stephen said. "It's kind of an eyesore."
Merchant's mother, Pamela Merchant, who is the president of the BHS Parents Group, said parents are concerned about how the arsenic cleanup will affect the school's aesthetics, because the plan calls for dirt to be piled up in the front lawn before it is hauled away. She also has a freshman son, Greg, 14, at BHS, and her daughter Caroline, 16, is a junior. "The school has been very good about keeping us posted," Merchant said. "I think their hands have been tied because it's being taken care of by the state, and there have been a holdups and delays."
- Written by Fiona
Toxic cleanup to begin
By Heather Murtagh (Daily Journal)
Victor Radionoff/Daily Journal
The San Mateo Union High School District is beginning a multi-million dollar cleanup of
arsenic at Burlingame High School with plans to complete the job by March.
Efforts to remove toxic dirt from the Burlingame High School campus begins this week with plans to be completed by March which will open the fenced front lawn and the back field to all.
Abnormally high levels of arsenic, a naturally occurring carcinogen, were discovered in soil directly in front of the school during a reconstruction and modernization project in 2005. A complete plan for removing the arsenic around campus is in place. District officials hope renovations will be finished March 1, 2008. Cost increases initially caused delays. With the help of grant money, the three-part process of removing and restoring the lawn and fields will begin by the end of this week, said Superintendent David Miller.
The $4.2 million project to remove and renovate the space around campus will be done utilizing three different contracts, said Chief Business Official Liz McManus. Removal and disposal of three to six inches of dirt from affected areas will cost an estimated $1.1 million.
A second contract, costing an estimated $1 million, will renovate the back practice field with artificial turf. Installing artificial turf rather than creating a dirt field at this spot was actually the cheaper option, said Miller, which is the only reason the district moved forward with that plan.
The final contract, which has yet to be awarded, will put a gopher mesh down in the front lawn separating the fresh and contaminated dirt, said McManus.
The district originally planned to clear out the dirt and clean the area over the 2005 winter break. Since then, the price of cleanup has continually risen from $250,000 two years ago to $500,000 at the end of 2005 to the current cost of $4.2 million. The rising price delayed the project.
In June, the district received a $2.5 million state emergency grant to help cover the cost, said Chief Business Official Liz McManus. A new removal plan was approved by the Department of Toxic Substance Control earlier this month.
The 60/40 grant will help the San Mateo Union High School District finish efforts which began earlier this year. The 8,000-square-foot lawn in front of the school was fenced off two years ago, eliminating a popular student lunch area. The dirt was determined to contain abnormally high levels of lead-based paint residue and polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. The lead came from paint used prior to the 1980s and the PCBs likely came from the fluid once used in electrical transformers, according to previously published reports from the DTSC.
Other arsenic infected areas were identified while the district tested dirt on the grounds, said McManus.
The district plans to save the trees in the front area. A diseased pine tree will need to be removed, however, near the track. There is arsenic in that area, but the tree was found to be diseased and hazardous.
The lead and PCBs in the soil in front of Burlingame High School could cause health concerns if one is exposed to it for a prolonged period of time. The type of exposure students have with the soil poses little threat, according to the DTSC.
However, the lawn will remained fenced off until the cleanup is finished.
Posted by: | November 27, 2007 at 02:47 PM