Summarized By Dani S. from an LA Times article, May 14, 1997
The brand new Jefferson New Middle School that was set to open July 1st has been postponed indefinitely due to two known carcinogens that have contaminated the school plant property.The $54.5-million campus was built on top of what was once a gas station. Although the district believes that all the pollution lies 150 feet beneath the school's surface, they've decided to postpone the opening of the school and spend some time testing the soil and water. They want to be certain that the school is safe. " We do feel that it's safe, but we want to make 1,000% sure," said district spokesman Brad Sales. "We don't want to open the school prematurely."
Unit chief Greg Holmes at the California Environmental Protection Agency knows that the school site probably posts no hazards against the students and teachers. But if problems were found during the testing then it would be too late for the district to halt the school's opening.
More than 1,000 students were expected to enroll in this brand new campus but for now they will just have to attend crowded local middle schools or be bused to South Gate or southeast Los Angeles.
When the School District bought the land in 1991 they were aware of the pollution the former gas station had left behind but believed that it could easily be cleaned up. They did clean it up but what they didn't know was that "the more dangerous hexavalent chromium was believed to have seeped through the ground water from the former Hard Chrome Products, which closed in 1991 and burned during the next year's riots. "The site is now an asphalt lot."
This was not the first time the district has had problems with toxins at school sites. In 1988 the district closed Tweedy Elementary School in South Gate after children and staff were sickened by fumes from the industry next door.
Alonzo Ester, a landlord, is "outraged to think of the money that would be wasted if the district did not open the school". But Taya Trais, 25, a mother of two, "worries whether her children are being exposed to chemicals."
Waste Not, Want Not is a part of LAEP
Learning Exchange.