Post by sushi on Apr 9, 2008 4:52:41 GMT -6
D204 critics: Study shows site unsafe
April 9, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
It took a month for Indian Prairie School District 204 to release environmental study results for the 87-acre Eola Road property selected as the site of Metea Valley High School.
It took a day for Neighborhood Schools for Our Children to pick them apart.
Shawn Collins, the attorney for a group of parents who have filed a lawsuit demanding the district build Metea on the Brach-Brodie property at 75th Street and Route 59, said Tuesday in a letter to The Sun the results indicate serious environmental problems. He argued that District 204 is not interested in investigating them any further.
Superintendent Stephen Daeschner was not available for comment on the letter, but District 204 board President Mark Metzger said Collins "pre-announced" he would disagree with the results.
"So I naturally assumed that he would be widely open-minded," Metzger said.
According to the environmental study results, five of 66 initial soil borings in four areas in the center of the site tested positive for contamination levels in excess of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's most stringent standards. Twenty-four additional borings were taken to determine how far the contamination had spread. Those additional borings led to the conclusion "that the material encountered in the center of the site has not migrated off of the peaker plant site," said Steve Heuer of Testing Service Corporation, the company District 204 hired to conduct the studies.
Still Collins said in all, 46 of the samples still showed signs of contamination.
"Environmental problems of this magnitude found in the limited testing performed demand that more testing be done, not that it stop," he said. "With such problems as these proven to exist at this site, this is, in my opinion, no legitimate justification for the district to have done testing on only 15 acres, ignoring the other 70. In fact, it is on the 70 acres that were ignored that thousands of school children will work and play each day."
Metzger said to his knowledge no farmland proposed for a school site - which is what the rest of the property is - has ever undergone the kind of testing Collins suggests.
Missing reports?
Collins also said he is troubled by the exclusion of seven additional environmental reports from Monday's presentation. The reports are generated by Midwest Generation, which owns the 37-acre parcel in the northeast corner of the school site where the peaker plant was located. They were shown to the district, but, due to the confidentiality agreement that kept the study results from being released, they were are not available to residents, Collins said.
Documents that were released confirm that between 1993 and 2002 more than 12,000 gallons of chemicals were spilled on the 15.5-acre site where a peaker plant operated from 1969 to 2004. In the 1970s and '80s no environmental regulations were enforced, Collins said.
"The district's consultant focused its testing on the areas of reported spills, and used the fact that no other spills were reported to justify no further (testing) for contamination," Collins said. "Assuming that no chemicals were spilled over almost a quarter of a century just because no such spills were reported is, in my opinion, a ridiculous assumption."
Metzger said this is exactly why TSC performed what he called the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency battery - a series of tests for 95 of the most common substances found on these sorts of sites.
"They did it precisely for that reason," he said. "To see what else is out there that either somebody forgot about or forgot to list or deliberately ignored," he said.
Other dangers
Collins said the report also ignores the site's proximity to high-voltage power lines and the electromagnetic radiation they produce, as well as the three high-pressure natural gas pipelines that are buried just four feet beneath the surface and bisect the site from north to south.
"In my opinion, these two serious environmental problems disqualify the Eola-Molitor property as a safe site for a school," Collins said.
The district has hired professionals to measure EMF levels produced by the power lines, and they've returned readings that are below even background levels.
And the natural gas pipelines on this site are inspected according to federal regulations. Those regulations require that patrol and leak surveys be conducted at least once each calendar year, and that computerized diagnostic runs through the lines be conducted every seven years. Construction of a school on the site would turn the property into a "high consequence area," which would increase the number of required patrol and leak surveys to at least twice a year.
Metzger said referencing these issues shows "what kind of nincompoop" Collins is.
"Because a Phase I and a Phase II report are not designed to look at those issues," Metzger said. "They're environmental reports."
April 9, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
It took a month for Indian Prairie School District 204 to release environmental study results for the 87-acre Eola Road property selected as the site of Metea Valley High School.
It took a day for Neighborhood Schools for Our Children to pick them apart.
Shawn Collins, the attorney for a group of parents who have filed a lawsuit demanding the district build Metea on the Brach-Brodie property at 75th Street and Route 59, said Tuesday in a letter to The Sun the results indicate serious environmental problems. He argued that District 204 is not interested in investigating them any further.
Superintendent Stephen Daeschner was not available for comment on the letter, but District 204 board President Mark Metzger said Collins "pre-announced" he would disagree with the results.
"So I naturally assumed that he would be widely open-minded," Metzger said.
According to the environmental study results, five of 66 initial soil borings in four areas in the center of the site tested positive for contamination levels in excess of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's most stringent standards. Twenty-four additional borings were taken to determine how far the contamination had spread. Those additional borings led to the conclusion "that the material encountered in the center of the site has not migrated off of the peaker plant site," said Steve Heuer of Testing Service Corporation, the company District 204 hired to conduct the studies.
Still Collins said in all, 46 of the samples still showed signs of contamination.
"Environmental problems of this magnitude found in the limited testing performed demand that more testing be done, not that it stop," he said. "With such problems as these proven to exist at this site, this is, in my opinion, no legitimate justification for the district to have done testing on only 15 acres, ignoring the other 70. In fact, it is on the 70 acres that were ignored that thousands of school children will work and play each day."
Metzger said to his knowledge no farmland proposed for a school site - which is what the rest of the property is - has ever undergone the kind of testing Collins suggests.
Missing reports?
Collins also said he is troubled by the exclusion of seven additional environmental reports from Monday's presentation. The reports are generated by Midwest Generation, which owns the 37-acre parcel in the northeast corner of the school site where the peaker plant was located. They were shown to the district, but, due to the confidentiality agreement that kept the study results from being released, they were are not available to residents, Collins said.
Documents that were released confirm that between 1993 and 2002 more than 12,000 gallons of chemicals were spilled on the 15.5-acre site where a peaker plant operated from 1969 to 2004. In the 1970s and '80s no environmental regulations were enforced, Collins said.
"The district's consultant focused its testing on the areas of reported spills, and used the fact that no other spills were reported to justify no further (testing) for contamination," Collins said. "Assuming that no chemicals were spilled over almost a quarter of a century just because no such spills were reported is, in my opinion, a ridiculous assumption."
Metzger said this is exactly why TSC performed what he called the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency battery - a series of tests for 95 of the most common substances found on these sorts of sites.
"They did it precisely for that reason," he said. "To see what else is out there that either somebody forgot about or forgot to list or deliberately ignored," he said.
Other dangers
Collins said the report also ignores the site's proximity to high-voltage power lines and the electromagnetic radiation they produce, as well as the three high-pressure natural gas pipelines that are buried just four feet beneath the surface and bisect the site from north to south.
"In my opinion, these two serious environmental problems disqualify the Eola-Molitor property as a safe site for a school," Collins said.
The district has hired professionals to measure EMF levels produced by the power lines, and they've returned readings that are below even background levels.
And the natural gas pipelines on this site are inspected according to federal regulations. Those regulations require that patrol and leak surveys be conducted at least once each calendar year, and that computerized diagnostic runs through the lines be conducted every seven years. Construction of a school on the site would turn the property into a "high consequence area," which would increase the number of required patrol and leak surveys to at least twice a year.
Metzger said referencing these issues shows "what kind of nincompoop" Collins is.
"Because a Phase I and a Phase II report are not designed to look at those issues," Metzger said. "They're environmental reports."
