Submitted by Brian Raabe
The History
Toxic pollution was confirmed at Greenwich High School in 2011 after work suggested something was not right in 2009.
Toxic Secrets, Connecticut Post, June 16, 2014
“A Hearst Connecticut Media review of hundreds of documents found that the town’s own consultant discovered “little cinders” and other debris underground during soil stability tests there in 2009, solid evidence of burned material — not the clean fill that should have been present… But officials never tested the dirt or looked any further until a backhoe operator digging a ditch for a new $46 million Music Instructional Space and Auditorium in 2011 — a full two years after the cinders were detected — brought up scoops of oily, acrid-smelling muck.”
The short story is that the Greenwich High site was a swamp, and all kinds of toxic materials were used as fill in the 60s and 70s to raise the elevation.
But it’s not productive to litigate the sins of the past here.
What is relevant today are the decisions made once toxins were found, and the pace of remediation that continues to the present.
Greenwich High School. August 2025 Contributed photo
2011 Starts the Clock
“Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei said he stands by the decisions of town and school officials, including not testing soil before PCBs and other toxins were discovered in 2011.”
“I believe the town and school administration have acted responsibly since the recent matters were identified,” Tesei said.
“Everyone was surprised.”
When do things stop being surprises at Town Hall and start being a failure to plan, anticipate, and take responsibility for the reality on the ground. Apparently 2011 was too soon for that mindset on the heels of the 2009 whiff of smoke.
That Greenwich High School was backfilled with toxins wasn’t a well-kept secret either.
““That stuff was bad,” said Phillip Chimbolo, an eyewitness who watched in the late 1960s as a convoy of trucks from the incinerator and power plant dumped tons of black ash at the school site. “It should have never been used.”
The Record
2009 discovery.
2011 toxic confirmation.
2014, three years later, limited progress.
But in that same year (2014) Republican Town Leadership believed clean up would take two years at $17 million dollars. (From CT Post article and link above).
The State of Connecticut said it may be closer to four years.
Neither was even close.
The Here and Now
Fast forward to Fred Camillo’s administration and a near DECADE later – September 2023 and a Greenwich Time headline:
“Greenwich High School’s toxic soil was worse than expected and is costing more to clean up.”
Greenwich High School’s toxic soil was worse than expected and is costing more to clean up Greenwich Time, Andy Blye, Sept 24, 2023
“Some of the material we’re taking out is tasked to be disposed of at a specialty disposal site. It is more hazardous than the other materials we’ve typically been taking out.” – former Dept of Public Works Commissioner Amy Seibert
To further quote from the article:
“The town has been working to clean up these fields for more than a decade. Leslie Tarkington, chair of the BET budget committee, said last week that the town had spent more than $38 million on the soil remediation since the 2012 fiscal year. That number is now greater than $40 million with the new appropriation.”
So, a decade into remediation, and in 2023 a new strain of more highly toxic soil was discovered. That’s only 24 months ago.
Did remediation plans evolve as a result?
Regardless, as Ms. Tarkington points out – a decade (now more) of excavating.
Do you think that’s acceptable?
Two Republican Administrations.
Do acres of PCB contaminated athletic fields warrant reacting like your hair is on fire and your rear end is catching?
Yes.
Does a decade plus of meetings and remediation suggest urgency and competence?
No.
This has been going on so long I bet if you asked half the high school parents what all the construction and material is for at the High School, they’d have no idea.
We’ve settled into blissful ignorance. A torpor of acceptance we need to shake ourselves out of.
Too long. Too slow. Almost done? “F”
Nine Pregnant Women Can’t Have a Baby in a Month
The reaction from Town officials to this critique may be, “We could only work in the summer due to the disruption remediation would cause during the school year. We had to go field by field. There was no way to go faster.”
No. Unacceptable. Too little and too late.
One can understand the limitations to a point, but three plus groups of kids have gone from freshman to seniors and graduated since the onset of this. All have been subject to the unknown impact of Greenwich Town government’s ineptitude and sloth.
Not only should this have moved faster, the 2023 discovery of more highly toxic material on First Selectman Camillo’s watch begs the question whether further work remains to be done – quickly.
Leadership is recognizing when something is completely unacceptable, rolling up your sleeves, and applying your energy and intellect to making it right. Double time.
That is leading from the front.
From the prior and current Republican administrations, we’ve seen none of that.
It was thought this could be done in two years and for less than half what had been spent. That suggests either a failure to understand the scope of the problem, or the hope to do as little as possible, as slowly as possible, and move on.
No wonder the administration doesn’t care about kids’ health in getting up before dawn due to school budget cuts, this is the context.
I underestimate both the
I have been accused of surfacing the same issues and putting them on rinse and repeat.
Havemeyer Hotel, Town suing the Town, substandard Republican candidates for Governor, the Board of Education and Board of Estimate and Taxation.
Those issues in isolation should be grounds for dismissal.
But what has transpired in the clean up at the High School is malpractice.
A No Confidence Vote
Having bungled something as critical as remediation of cancer causing compounds, how will a Greenwich Republican administration handle the next major hurricane to hit?
It’s clear FEMA is being dismantled. Line to the Feds is a fast busy…
When we are on our own – power out, streets flooded, and homes destroyed, will this be the team you can have confidence in?
Maybe we can all stay in the hotel Fred Camillo wants to build on the Avenue…
There’s a finite set of challenges you can be confident this group can handle. Like a really short list.
But the unfortunate reality is that this deer tick of an administration is dug in.
It’s going to take more than dabbing the glowing end of a cigarette a few times to get them out. And more than a 600 word letter or two here and there.
There’s just too much going on below the surface in Greenwich, literally and figuratively to stand for more of this.
Brian Raabe