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 Media Center > News Releases
News Release
| For Immediate Release:: |
December 6 , 2007 |
| Contact:: |
Stacey Gonzalez, CHEJ
703-237-2249 ext.21 (w) |
Schools in 45 States Can Be Built On Contaminated Land
Groups in AL, NJ, RI and MA Saying “NO” to Schools On Toxic Sites
Falls Church, VA – On Tuesday, December 6, 2005, community groups fighting local schools being built on contaminated land in Alabama, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island will host coordinated press events to release a new report, Building Safe Schools, Invisible Threats, Visible Actions, with the national group, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
Over 7,000 students attending six schools in these four states will attend schools on or near hazardous sites, if school districts in have their way. Building on or near contaminated areas is becoming a dangerous national trend.
Prompted by the Katrina disaster, which is understood to have spread industrial contamination across the Gulf Coast states, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice report, will issue a report titled Building Safe Schools: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions on December 6th. In it, CHEJ researched the current laws in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and found that no laws require that public school districts first test for soil contamination before building a school, playground, or playing field. It also provides model safe school siting policy for local use.
Subsequent research of all 50 states revealed that only five states prohibit a school from being built on a site identified as hazardous. Alabama, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, where schools are currently being built on contaminated land, do not fall into this small category. Reverend Franklin Tate, of Birmingham, Alabama, in opposition to ongoing plans to construct a school adjoining a “tank farm” where petroleum is stored, said: “A train collided with a gas tanker in July, causing a gas spill at the very site where the new school will be built. We continue to raise our collective voice that this toxic and dangerous site is no place for our children to learn!”
Despite national disasters such as the 1979 Love Canal story, where the 99th Street School was built next to 20,000 tons of hazardous waste, schools continue to lack safeguards from being sited on contaminated land.
The key findings of the report:
- Only five states have laws which require districts to first test the soil for contaminates prior to site selection, and have an established remediation plan;
- There is a growing trend for cash-strapped districts to use cheap, and often toxic land as a school site;
- The poorer the community is, the less clean-up contaminated land receives;
- Due to the lack of regulations, schools reconstructed in the Katrina affected Gulf Coast region could likely be built on contaminated land and pose severe health risks to children and employees.
See also:
Additional media coverage:
The Child Proofing Our Communities Campaign is an alliance of over 200 organizations working since 2001 to prevent children’s exposures to toxic contamination. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice is founded and directed by Lois Marie Gibbs, the community leader at Love Canal. CHEJ seeks to help local citizens and organizations come together and take an organized, unified stand to toward a healthy, sustainable future. For more information, contact: Stacey Gonzalez at (202) 276 – 2481.
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