The following was sent to SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyon.
While I commend your plans for remediation this summer (which should have happened last summer, if not sooner), they fall far short of what the SMMUSD should do, which is immediate, full source testing tri-school campus-wide (and remediation from those findings). PCBs well above 50 ppm have been found in 25 percent of rooms across the tri-school campus. One can quickly and easily research and conclude that classrooms in buildings built at the same time would have caulking mixed and used in each classroom in a similar manner, therefore an extraordinarily high likelihood exists that high levels of PCB contamination exist across the campus. By not testing, it appears you do not “want” to find the high levels of PCBs that most certainly exist in other classrooms and do not want to then have to remediate.
It would be nice if you would stop hiding behind EPA region nine’s inexperience in dealing with PCBs in schools, and their disappointing and inconsistent approach vs. other EPA regions with experience in dealing with PCBs in schools on the East Coast. Also, the EPA never said you could not test. You are our leaders. It is your choice to source test or not. You should care first and foremost about the safety and protection of all children, teachers and staff, not just those “lucky enough” to only have classes in rooms that have been tested and will be remediated. What about children, teachers and staff in the non-tested, pre-1979 classrooms? How completely unfair to them and how irresponsible of you to not test.
I implore you to stop hiding behind air and dust testing, which have no Federal laws behind them. While cleaning is always good, it will not eliminate the severe PCB contamination issue across our tri-school campus. The entire campus (all rooms in pre-1979 buildings) should be source tested ASAP and remediated. I know it, you know it, and you are choosing not to do it. It is time to do the right thing and not “partially” as you have planned, but comprehensively.
Beth Lucas