This story was updated to include information shared at a Thur., Aug. 13 town hall meeting.
Kennedy High students won’t have to be moved to a different location after environmental tests showed there are no unsafe levels of PCE in the air inside its main buildings, WCCUSD announced Thursday afternoon. The school will be reopened next week.
The campus was closed for more than a week after soil tests found higher-than-allowed levels of PCE, a volatile chemical solvent that can pose health risks through long-term exposure, usually if it’s breathed or is in drinking water, which it’s not. The city of Richmond also shut down the community pool on campus. The pool will reopen on Aug. 24.
“There is no evidence of vapor intrusion at Kennedy High School, and there is no evidence of immediate or long-term health concerns from the PCE in soil gas,” WCCUSD Superintendent Cheryl Cotton wrote in a Parent Square post to the Kennedy High community. “Our colleagues at the DTSC have notified us that our results represent the best possible scenario.”
If you go
What: West Contra Costa Unified School District and state and city officials will meet with the community to discuss the most recent PCE test results from Kennedy High School.
When: Thur., Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Richmond Memorial Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza
The air test results, released by WCCUSD on Thursday, found no traces of PCE in any classroom or administration building. They did reveal small traces of it inside the kitchen and metal shop, though that is believed to be related to the uses of those facilities and not coming from the same source as what was found in the soil. PCE is commonly used in dry cleaning but it’s also used as a degreaser and is present in other household products. It’s also generally present in low levels in the air of urban areas such as Richmond. Both the metal shop and the kitchen will be closed and additional testing will be done.
“These detectable levels fell above residential screening levels but well below the limits for commercial or occupational spaces,” Cotton wrote. “All environmental scientists and medical doctors who we have consulted have shared that they have no immediate or long-term health concerns based on our results.”
The district and DTSC plan to do a survey of all the chemicals in both the kitchen and welding shop, remove those consumer products they believe are enhancing that level of PCE, and test again. If that reduces the PCE levels, the rooms will be reopened.
Still, the levels found in those two rooms, while above DTSC’s residential screening levels, are still far below what is allowed by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CAL/OSHA) standards.
“If I were a parent of a Kennedy High School teen, I would feel totally comfortable sending my child to that high school,” said Dr. Gina Solomon, chief of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine at UCSF, speaking at a town hall hosted by the district on Thursday night. “If I were a teacher or a staff member working there, I would feel very comfortable going to work.”
The Aug. 3 closure sparked a whirlwind response from the district, which hosted several community meetings with scientists, doctors and other officials to keep the public informed while figuring out what it might do if the campus couldn’t be reopened by the first day of school, which is Tue., Aug. 18.
Back to school preparations, including student registration and orientation, had to be moved to DeJean Middle School. Fall sports conditioning and practices were suspended. The district prepared three different contingency plans in case the tests revealed high levels of PCE.
Any one of those plans would’ve cost the district at least $200,000, if not more. The district already shelled out about $100,000 to pay for the PCE testing, which was recommend by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).
“It’s just north of about $100,000 for the 26 tests that we did this past week,” interim Associate Superintendent of Business Services Jeff Carter said at Wednesday’s school board meeting. “That does not include the about roughly $20,000 for the six soil tests that originally took place in July that identified the PCE originally.”
The PCE was coincidentally discovered as WCCUSD was in the midst of a $280 million campus renovation to transform the nearly 60-year-old high school into a modern facility that can house up to 1,200 students.
The PCE was detected via small drilled testing holes, about 5 feet deep, in five of six locations that were tested in the northeast portion of the campus, including Cutting Boulevard and 43rd Street to the east. The source hasn’t been confirmed, but there is a known PCE case involving a dry cleaner on San Pablo Avenue, and there are three other known source sites nearby, including the Miraflores senior housing development.
The PCE is unrelated to the campus construction. PCE contamination, which commonly comes from dry cleaning operations, can be found at at least 10 sites in Richmond, and the problem has been under investigation for about 20 years.
“While this is very encouraging news, our work does not end here,” school board clerk Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy told Richmondside. “We will continue working with DTSC and our partners to understand the underground contamination, ensure continued monitoring and keep our community informed as we learn more.”
The district approved changing Kennedy’s new building designs to include a vapor intrusion mitigation system that involves installing barriers to block the gas migration and adding venting systems underground to reroute air above the roof line.
The city’s fire department, in partnership with DTSC, also conducted air monitoring along the school fence line on Cutting Boulevard, South 45th Street and Berk Avenue, and all the readings were in normal ranges, according to LaShonda White, Richmond deputy city manager for community services.
Kennedy High’s new principal David Luongo said the school will continue to do air and soil testing throughout the campus and consult with DTSC “likely annually.”
“I was in with all of our teachers this morning, and there was loud cheers and excitement to be able to welcome our students back to the campus that they know and love on Tuesday,” Luongo said on Thursday. “We are really excited to get things started.”
