Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) board members have publicly stated all but two SMMUSD schools may contain PCBs. Their thinking is if all the schools have PCBs, then why clean up any of them? They are using this backward thinking as an excuse to not test and identify PCBs. Since only 30% of schools built from 1950-1979 may have PCBs, wouldn’t it be nice to tell parents and teachers at other schools they don’t have PCB-laden building materials? What a relief this would be to parents.
Let’s talk now about what we do know. Malibu High School and Juan Cabrillo have PCB-laden building materials in some of the highest PCB concentrations in the nation. We need to get Malibu kids out of harm’s way and test all SMMUSD schools.
The current board treats parents and teachers as if they are requesting special treatment by asking for safe learning and work environments that complies with Federal law.
Consider this: In August 2014, a Walmart return center in Indianapolis immediately evacuated hundreds of employees when PCBs were discovered. They tested to identify the sources — which were determined to be caulking, paint and insulation. This building is not in use.Â
Or consider this: Westport Middle School in Massachusetts recently decided to close its campus because of PCBs and put students in portables. The levels found in that school are significantly lower than those found at our Malibu schools.
Nonetheless, the SMMUSD school board continues to put our children and their teachers in buildings with PCBs that have violated federal law, classrooms that have never been tested and classrooms where levels of the most toxic PCB congener (126) is three million times higher than the EPA’s allowable health standard. Overwhelming scientific evidence connects PCB exposure and adverse health effects. While our students are not showing serious effects from PCBs right now, the latency period for PCBs can be 10-20 years and adverse effects can manifest in different ways. Three alumni from 2002-2003 have reported having thyroid cancer in their late 20s. We don’t want even one student, graduate or teacher to suffer ill health effects from occupying classrooms with PCBs.
Many people wonder why PCB sources are not being tested. Here is what we presume. The district is worried about personal liability since they’ve known about PCBs in our schools since 2009 and failed to inform parents and teachers until 2013. Because serious illnesses have been reported, this fear of liability is even higher. Since the district did not identify the sources in 2009-2011 and remove them, investigate exposure, or move students out of classrooms, every decision of the past year has been designed to avoid liability. The district has hired lawyers and consultants to justify its inaction and PR firms to convince parents there is no risk in leaving the kids and teachers in classrooms that contain PCBs. But if the district is wrong about any of their actions, gross negligence and liability cannot be escaped.
Concurrently, Region 9 EPA is afraid that MHS, if handled in a responsible and protective manner, will open a can of worms across the state. If the EPA has the school properly test to identify the PCB sources, then the EPA must force the district to remove them in compliance with Federal law. The EPA simply does not have the manpower to manage PCBs in schools on a regional scale. So rather than be as protective of health as EPA in other regions have done for the past 10-plus years, Region 9 EPA, on their first PCBs in schools case, is taking a less protective stand to avoid a perceived state-wide crisis.
Region 9 EPA recently required a large California utility company to test PCB sources in the basement of a building that is not occupied by people and properly test and remove PCBs. Why is the EPA not enforcing TSCA consistently among industry and schools? Why are school children treated as a low priority when their health is most at risk?
We need our elected school board members to set their fears aside and focus on those whom they have been tasked to protect. We don’t need the EPA to protect our kids when the school board has the power to test the sources and remove PCBs on their own. It is not too much to ask for or expect Academic Excellent and Environmental Health Excellence in all our schools.