Greenwich Schools issued an update on the ongoing Environmental testing of the fields at Western Middle School on Tuesday. In a statement released just before 5:00pm, the district said its environmental consultant, Langan, continues to evaluate the extent of PCB-impacted soil at Western’s fields.
PCBs is short for Polychlorinated Biphenyls, which are a man-made organic chemical consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine atoms. Due to their non flammability, chemical stability and electric insulating properties, PCBs were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications from 1929 until manufacturing was banned in 1979. The United States EPA has concluded that PCBs are a probable human carcinogen.
June 2018 Update
Pursuant to recent discussions with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the State Department of Public Health, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency; additional characterization sampling, including groundwater sampling, will be performed at the school over the summer.
Greenwich Public Schools and Langan are committed to developing the proper framework for completing remediation. Following site characterization activities, Langan will develop remediation work plans for the fields that will likely include the following:
- Development and execution of action plans for the protection of students, faculty, on-site workers, community, and the environment during soil disturbance activities;
- Excavation and off-site disposal of soils;
- Placement of a highly visible demarcation barrier (e.g. orange snow fencing) between residual site material and imported certified clean backfill material; and
- Backfilling of remedial excavation areas to grade with imported certified clean fill
Once the Remedial Action Plan has been drafted, it will be submitted to the regulatory agencies for review and concurrence. The time frame for approval and implementation of the plan is based on the review schedules for USEPA and CTDEEP and any additional requests these agencies may have.
The district will continue to provide updates to the community as new results and information become available.