A regional director for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) briefly toured Malibu High School (MHS) on Friday before meeting for several hours with 100 parents, teachers, students and community members to answer questions about the steps they are taking to remedy environmental concerns at the campus.
Region 9 Director Jared Blumenfeld said the EPA and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) could not provide every answer until all testing was completed. When asked if the campus was safe, Blumenfeld said “no,” adding that more air testing still had to take place in order to make a full determination on campus safety.
“Our goal is to do further air testing to make sure we can answer that question more accurately,” he said.
He mainly addressed the presence of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in campus building materials, which the federal EPA regulates.
“Any level found from testing that exceeds the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) legal limits with PCBs above [the legal threshold] 50 parts per million will be removed from the school,” he told the group, which included Santa Monica-Malibu Supt. Sandra Lyon and district CFO Jan Maez.
Local group Malibu Unites organized the tour and Unites President Jennifer deNicola led the brief tour, which consisted of a look outside and inside one middle school classroom, before attendees filed into the nearby Malibu United Methodist Church to question Blumenfeld on the EPA’s role in planned testing and cleanup at Malibu High, Middle School and Juan Cabrillo Elementary. Several areas of the campuses are currently shut down for cleaning and testing, with large signs warning people to stay out.
Environmental safety at the campuses has been in question since October when a number of MHS teachers expressed fear in a letter to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District that the diagnosis of three teachers with thyroid cancer and health problems among other teachers could be related to contaminants on campus. PCBs were commonly used in building materials until a federal ban was implemented in 1979.
Earlier this month, the EPA turned down plans submitted by the district-contracted firm Environ because they failed to address specific PCB-related issues.
“We asked Environ to resubmit a new plan for PCB cleanup, specifically for Malibu High School (MHS) and then a plan separate for the districtwide plan,” said Nahal Mogharabi, an EPA spokesperson.
Revisions are due back to the EPA by July 4, according to Blumenfeld.
“EPA science is second to none,” Blumenfeld said at one point. “You can trust EPA findings, and if we ask for a protocol to be done in a certain way and if it isn’t done the right way, we are going to ask for it to be done again.”
Blumenfeld said the EPA’s goal is to test the caulk, which the agency knows is a source of contamination, to make sure it is not migrating, breaking down to dust in the air, which gets ingested or inhaled.
“This is why we are requiring additional air testing to be done and done in a way so people feel safe in the classroom,” said Blumenfeld. “The light ballasts had a huge amount of PCBs found in them, so we don’t place all our focus on caulk.”
Despite wishes from leaders of Malibu Unites that “every square inch” of the campuses be tested, Blumenfeld said that goal was not feasible.
“I think it is unrealistic to think we can test every square inch of the school, but we are going to test large enough of areas to make sure people are comfortable,” said Blumenfeld.
Some parents have also demanded that the district move all classes into trailers while the environmental situation gets sorted out, but district officials have yet to make a decision on the request.
“We will be prepared for this possibility and would definitely look at using trailers and all other options if this occurs so we will be ready to start the new school year,” Lyon said.
