After a yearlong state investigation into whether the air inside El Puente Community School is toxic, the results are in, and the news is mostly good. But there are a couple of caveats.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has determined that the air inside the school poses no threat to students. But the state also concluded there could be a potential threat to teachers and staff members who stay at the school for at least 40 years. El Puente has been located at 430 E. Gutierrez St., across the street from the Santa Barbara Home Improvement Center, for nine years.
The other caveat is that the property owner, Laguna Industrial Partners, which leases the building to the Santa Barbara County Education Office, refused to allow a certain kind of testing that involved cutting through the floor to collect vapor samples. A Laguna Industrial Partners representative did not return a call to Noozhawk on Wednesday.
El Puente serves about 150 students, most of whom have been expelled from traditional schools for infractions such as brandishing a weapon, selling drugs or fighting. Partly prompted by a citizen complaint, the study is considered complete, but the DTSC will continue monitoring the site occasionally to be sure the levels don’t post significant changes, said Steven Hariri, a senior hazardous substances engineer for the state agency.
Although the air inside the school is now officially considered safe for students, there is no denying that the soil near the school is polluted.
Years ago, toxins seeped out of underground storage tanks containing waste oil on the premises of a neighboring site at 411 E. Gutierrez St., which was home to a diesel truck repair business in the 1940s. In 1992, the tanks were removed, but the toxins remain. An underground storage tank was also found on the other side of the school, at 436 E. Gutierrez St., and was removed in 1995.
In the El Puente study, which was overseen by the state but conducted by the environmental consulting firm Dudek of Santa Barbara, concentrations of a chemical called tetrachloroethene were detected in the indoor air of the school.
When inhaled in excessive amounts, tetrachloroethene — or PCE — can lead to side effects such as dizziness, confusion, drowsiness and headaches. Public health officials have said it is most likely a carcinogen. Some studies have linked high exposures of PCE to reproductive problems in women, as well as liver and kidney damage in animals.
The study, which was completed in October but approved by the state just prior to the holidays, also found concentrations of trichloroethene — or TCE — which has been used as a degreaser for metal parts. The symptoms of high TCE exposure levels are comparable to those of PCE.
Despite the scary list of symptoms, Dudek’s toxicologists concluded that the concentrations at El Puente were too small to present a threat to students. The increased cancer risk to students was not above the industry threshold ratio for concern: one incidence of cancer per million people, according to the study. For teachers and faculty members who have worked at the school for 40 years, however, the ratio is as high as eight incidences per million people, amounting to a slight increased risk, officials said.
Officials downplayed the threat.
“Let me state that the detection levels we are dealing with are very, very, very low,” said Hariri. “The risk model is very conservative. I don’t even know if the school is going to be there in 40 years.”
Hariri also downplayed the significance of the property owner’s refusal to participate, saying the indoor air quality tests are what really matter.
“The real McCoy is the air,” he said.
The study cost the county Education Office about $6,500.
Bill Cirone, superintendent of the county school system said the study confirms what the district already knew: that the school is safe.
“We are pleased they in effect are saying we were right — and not for the sake of being right,” Cirone said Wednesday. “We’re talking about a safety issue.”
Cirone also said El Puente’s 10-year lease will expire within the year, and confirmed that the school could move at that time. But he also hedged, saying the school could remain where it is, too.
“We are discussing lease arrangements now, and exploring all options,” Cirone said.
The results of the study did little to quell critics, who say the school district never should have considered putting El Puente in a polluted area in the first place.
“I don’t see how they can say it’s safe – it’s just not a true statement,” said Karolyn Renard, a local attorney with a focus in education law and disability rights for children, and a frequent critic of the district.
Renard said because toxicologists do not know what’s directly underneath the building, it’s possible that an earthquake or anything else causing a slight shift in the building’s foundation could trigger an emission of toxic vapors. Because the additional testing will occur only every few months, the vapors could be in the air for months before being detected, she said.
“It’s just common sense, and they are not coming up with it,” she said Friday. “It’s disgusting. And we’re paying these people hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and benefits.”
The issue first came to light in 2005, with a complaint from architect Elizabeth Sorgman. The Santa Barbara resident learned that high levels of dangerous chemicals had been found in the area’s shallow groundwater in the 1990s, and that a state agency had never given clearance for the school to be there.
Sorgman brought the information to the attention of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which was overseeing the cleanup of the area tainted by the underground tanks. Somehow, agency was unaware of the school’s existence.
The agency contacted the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is responsible for determining the environmental safety of potential school sites. The DTSC, however, had never inspected El Puente’s site. That is because the school moved to its present location from West Sola Street near Chapala Street in 1999, just one year before the onset of a state law requiring that the properties of new schools be inspected for pollutants and cleared by the DTSC. (Technically, El Puente wasn’t a new school, because it had existed for years at another location, and was about to inhabit a leased facility. This means that, technically, even if El Puente had moved to Gutierrez Street after the law kicked in, the school still might not have been subject to clearance from the DTSC, Hariri said.)
In any event, Cirone and the county Education Office knew about the neighborhood’s history of pollution problems, and hired a firm to conduct indoor air quality tests inside the building prior to moving in the students in 2000. Like the more recent tests, Cirone said, those tests determined the air quality posed no safety hazard to students.
Reached Wednesday, Sorgman declined to comment, saying she hasn’t been following the issue.
El Puente principal Cecilia Molina said she felt relieved by the results.
“There were so many different types of tests,” she said. “One would be done, and then I’d be called a few months later and told they would be doing something else.”
Molina said she is unclear about the implications of the finding that the air quality could pose a threat to staff members after four decades.
“I haven’t seen the actual report,” she said.
Teacher Eddie Torres said he, too, is relieved.
“One of the biggest concerns we have here is safety of the students,” he said. “If we don’t have a (safe) site, shame on us. I’m glad they came out negative.”
As for the potential 40-year threat, he said he is not concerned.
“That’s a long time,” he said. “I hope to be enjoying my retirement before then.”
Write to rkuznia@noozhawk.com
