Several weeks ago while reading Minutes of the school board I noticed that the board adopted a resolution (p.5) allowing environmental testing at Jefferson and PAAAS, both schools located at the former National Starch Building on W. Front Street. I wondered what was that about.
Reading the recently obtained legal bills (See August Bills), obtained via an OPRA, I found out that the school board met with the party responsible for the environmental testing. Apparently on that meeting the NJ DEP (NJ Department of Environmental Protection) was also present, along with an environmental lawyer from Wolff and Samson. Apparently this meeting was on August 16 and it was to answer concerns the school board had on some results.
Wondering about what was this about I went to the NJDEP website, found out the files and this morning I contacted NJDEP. As it is, the problem is not with the school site but with a neighboring site and by law any property within 100 feet needs to be tested. The test results, for Jefferson and PAAAS, came back to the school board and showed no evidence for concern, no reason to be alarmed. A copy of the ongoing activity can be accessed at the NJDEP Dataminer page (don't ask me how right now since I forgot to take notes and will have to sit again to retrace my steps on how I got to the files on this case). Also available, but via an OPRA, are the reports and the letters sent to the BOE on this matter. Response to my OPRA should come next week, but wouldn't it be nice if the school board could give an update on any environmental activities at any of the city's schools?
Anyway. Information on this matter opened up a "whole wide world" into Site Remediation as the 2009 adopted Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) has changed how site remediation gets done and by whom. Full implementation of SRRA is scheduled to take place on May 2012 and as I was clicking different pages at the NJDEP website I came across a list of sites in Plainfield that are known to contain contaminants, which some of them, if not most, are related to underground storage tanks, gas stations and dry cleaners, but what called my attention is that among the old pending cases for investigation that are still open are Maxson and Cook.
Isn't it time to request that the school board gives the community a full report on the state of the school buildings? Especially now that there are plans for new school construction.
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