Pollution on Crowley property eyed for school

A former auto dealership in Forestville where officials plan to build a $60 million school contains some alarming contamination, according to an environmental report that had been kept under wraps.
The report, prepared in 2005, found chromium, barium, lead, TPH, arsenic, chloroform and other chemicals that have the potential to harm people.
Federal government health information warns that excessive exposure to the chemicals can cause a wide array of health woes.
Though officials have mentioned the possibility that the site beside Greene-Hills School could have some environmental problems, they never specified what those problems might be.
The City Council last month endorsed the site for construction of a new 900-student school to house kindergarten through eighth grade. Only one councilor, Frank Nicastro, opposed the move.
Nicastro said at the time there should have been more opportunity for public input and he expressed unhappiness that Mayor William Stortz failed to share two environmental studies that have been done on the Crowley property.
One of those studies was a May 2005 report by Applied Environmental Control, LLC prepared for Crowley Auto Group, which owns the property.
In the report, Environmental Manager Robert Bertolette details findings on the 2-acre site and recommends more monitoring of the property “that will ultimately facilitate the transfer of this property.”
The report said that firm surveyed the site and drilled test wells to determine what sorts of contaminants might have polluted the ground or water beneath the longtime car dealership, which operated from 1948 to 2005.
Among the “contaminants of concern that could be associated with site activities” is TPH, or total petroleum hydrocarbons, a term that covers several hundred chemical compounds created from crude oil.
“Some chemicals that may be found in TPH are hexane, jet fuels, mineral oils, benzene, toluene, xylenes, naphthalene, and fluorene, as well as other petroleum products and gasoline components,” according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registory.
Samples of TPH typically contain a mixture of the chemicals.
“Some of the TPH compounds can affect your central nervous system,” the agency reports.
“One compound can cause headaches and dizziness at high levels in the air. Another compound can cause a nerve disorder called ‘peripheral neuropathy,’ consisting of numbness in the feet and legs,” it reports. “Other TPH compounds can cause effects on the blood, immune system, lungs, skin, and eyes.”
“Animal studies have shown effects on the lungs, central nervous system, liver, and kidney from exposure to TPH compounds. Some TPH compounds have also been shown to affect reproduction and the developing fetus in animals,” according to the agency.
Water testing at the former Crowley site found elevated levels of “dissolved chromium and lead” in two wells, the study found, though the levels may fluctuate as the groundwater rises and falls at different times of the year.
Chromium and lead are natural elements, but their levels may be elevated on the site.
“At this time, it is our opinion that contaminants of concern (i.e., chromium and lead) detected in groundwater are currently below” the level of groundwater protection criteria, the 2005 environmental report found.
Both chromium and lead can cause health problems.
The site also appears to have an excessive amount of barium, another natural element. It is also produced by burning oil and coal.
“Barium has been found to potentially cause gastrointestinal disturbances and muscular weakness when people are exposed to it at levels above the EPA drinking water standards for relatively short periods of time,” according to the toxic substances agency, a division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
“Some people who eat or drink amounts of barium above background levels found in food and water for a short period may experience vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, difficulties in breathing, increased or decreased blood pressure, numbness around the face, and muscle weakness,” the agency says.
“Eating or drinking very large amounts of barium compounds that easily dissolve can cause changes in heart rhythm or paralysis and possibly death. Animals that drank barium over long periods had damage to the kidneys, decreases in body weight, and some died,” according to the agency.

Specific site concerns
* An abandoned 3,000 underground tank under the west parking lot.
* “A gasoline [underground storage tank] grave” adjacent to the 3,000 gallon tank.
* A 2,000 heating oil tank beside the building.
* “Former drum storage area and solid waste Dumpsters” beside the building.
* “Tank graves” for motor oil transmission fluid tanks removed in 1986.
* A 1,000 gallon waste oil underground tank beside the building.
* Two catch basins on the east side of the site that may have collected “spills of oils or hazardous liquids.”
* Sub-floor drains in service bays that may have caught contaminated runoff.

Negotiations to start soon
Mayor Art Ward, who said he hasn’t had a chance to review the environmental findings yet, said he plans to meet with Ken Crowley within a couple of weeks to begin talking about the potential sale of the property for a school.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com