DOE Reports Building Air Quality Is Safe

At our last PTA meeting on February 12, Mr. Bernie Orlan reported to parents from MCSM and Isaac Newton Middle School that this winter’s first round of indoor air quality tests, conducted on December 22, showed no evidence of harmful chemicals in the building air.

Mr. Orlan is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety for the DOE’s Division of School Facilities. Back in November, it was determined that the time it would take for Con Edison to secure the necessary permits from the DOE central office for indoor air and soil sampling would probably not allow those tests to be conducted until the mid-winter recess. In response, Mr. Orlan committed the DOE to overseeing the performance of preliminary air quality tests during the first days of the winter recess that began on December 22. He coordinated his efforts with those of Con Edison and the NY State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Health (DOH) to ensure that his tests would be performed in the same locations Con Edison would do their later tests, thereby allowing successive test results to be compared to one another.

Mr. Orlan described the results of these tests to parents at the February 12 PTA meeting as “truly, truly excellent.” All the test results came back without any indicators for the chemicals associated with manufactured gas plant (MGP) contamination. One chemical indicator did show up that is not normally associated with MGP sites, so NYSDOH recommended taking a second reading in the area of the building where that reading was found. Mr. Orlan indicated that the air in this area (the Print Shop) was resampled and nothing was found. NYSDOH and NYSDEC had no issues or concerns with these test results.

Mr. Orlan’s test results were also reviewed in brief by independent consultants at the request of David Palmer of NY Lawyers for the Public Interest. NYLPI, as they are known, have been acting as advisors to the MCSM PTA on the issues related to the toxic contaminants under our school building and the plans for their removal by Con Edison. After reviewing the test data, Mr. Palmer’s consultants also indicated that they saw no evidence that the school’s indoor air quality represents a health hazard.

Con Edison has since conducted another round of indoor air quality tests as well as taking soil samples from beneath the school building (by drilling through the basement floor in selected locations). These tests were performed during the midwinter break (from February 18-22) and were completed early the following week. We are awaiting the results and report of these tests and will report on them here once they are available.