Elected officials and advocates urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Education (DOE) to start investigating the levels of toxic PCBs in hundreds of potentially affected city schools.

The results of a pilot study conducted this year with the federal agency and the city DOE found airborne PCBs that exceeded recommended levels at P.S. 199 on the Upper West Side, P.S. 178 in the Bronx and Brooklyn’s P.S. 309.

From 1950 to 1978, before a Congressional ban went into effect, caulk and lighting ballasts—a fixture that controls electrical flow—used to construct buildings and schools contained PCBs, which studies suggest can cause learning disabilities in children, cancer, and cardiovascular and immune system disease.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, an Upper West Side Democrat, wants Judith Enck, regional administrator for the EPA, to immediately expand its oversight of PCB management in the city’s public schools.

“The problem is much more serious than we originally believed,” Nadler said at a rally at City Hall Oct. 7.

The EPA, in a statement, said the elevated PCB levels found in those schools “do not pose an immediate health risk in the short term.”

“Any needed repairs or renovations to address PCBs problems are conducted in ways that protect everyone who works in NYC school buildings,” siad Bonnie Bellow, an EPA spokesperson, in a statement.

The EPA expressed confidence in the study and said it has been communicating with federal and state officials about the feasibility of funding a broader approach.

The city estimates the price tag to be $1 billion. The EPA wouldn’t foot the entire bill. Already, the city has spent $3 million on remediation efforts. But Nadler said the city would “find the funds if we have to.”

West Side Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Daniel O’Donnell signed a letter with 15 of their colleagues to Enck asking the federal agency to inspect roughly 700 schools that may have PCB-laden caulk and light fixtures. Rosenthal plans to reintroduce her 2008 legislation that would require citywide testing of schools.

“Are we content to let New York City schoolchildren in untested school buildings serve as the proverbial canaries for future generations?” she asked.

Miranda Massie, litigation and training director with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, expressed concern that the agency’s study downplays the risks of PCBs, she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

“It is important to note that independent experts regard the EPA guidances as inadequately health-protective, in part because they are based exclusively on cancer risks” and overlook “the many other substantial, negative health impacts of PCBs,” she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

The EPA, in its statement, said, “We will continue to work closely with New York City on the pilot program, which we believe is providing valuable information about the extent of the PCB problem and measures we can take to address it.”

That continuation will begin this weekend with an additional round of testing at P.S. 199.

Two years ago, the man-made chemical was found in the Upper West Side school, at 270 W. 70th St. between West End and Amsterdam avenues. An investigation revealed that the school was contaminated with the chemical in May 2008, when a contractor hired by the School Construction Authority removed caulk containing PCBs without following state regulations.

P.S. 199 will be a test site for PCB clean-up. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

Elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take over cleanup, with the city footing the cost.

Last January, the EPA and the city came to an agreement to study the removal of PCBs. Nadler urged the city to pick P.S. 199, one of the first schools in the city found to be contaminated with PCBs, to be a part of the five-school pilot program.

“It’s very good news that the EPA and the city chose P.S. 199 as one of the schools for PCB testing,” Nadler said. “I, along with other Upper West Side elected officials, first brought this issue to the EPA’s attention because of the situation at P.S. 199. It is only logical that P.S. 199 be thoroughly tested to ensure that the kids are not being needlessly exposed to dangerous chemicals.”

Data collected from the pilot program will lead to a citywide approach for removing PCBs in schools and reducing the risk of exposure to the chemical.
Congress banned most uses of PCBs in 1976, though there are buildings that were constructed or renovated prior to that time that may contain the chemical in caulk around windows and doorframes, according to the EPA.
The pilot program will test air in five selected schools, but Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal wants the city to test all schools that have caulk from 1950 to 1978, when PCBs were still being used.

“This is an intermediate step, the pilot program,” said Rosenthal, who recently authored a bill that would require such testing. “This needs to be done throughout the city.”

The city will conduct a study to better target and remove PCBs, a man-made, cancer-causing chemical used in construction and electrical products before 1978. The legally-binding agreement was reached after the city possibly violated the Toxic Substances Control Act by using caulk that contains more PCBs than are allowed.

The city will choose five schools—one from each borough—to study, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler wants P.S. 199, at 270 W. 70th St., between West End and Amsterdam avenues, to be included. In May 2008, Nadler and other Upper West Side elected officials urged the EPA to clean the building when School Construction Authority subcontractors removed PCB-containing caulk without following state regulations.

“[P.S. 199] is where the problem of PCB contamination was first discovered and so it is logical for it to be among the schools used in the city’s PCB study,” said Ilan Kayatsky, spokesperson for Nadler. “Upper West Side families certainly deserve the peace of mind knowing that their kids are not being needlessly exposed to dangerous chemicals in their public school.”

State Sen. Tom Duane echoed that statement, saying that removal of PCB-containing caulk will restore the community’s confidence in the safety of P.S. 199. And Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal has been pushing a bill to get the city to study all schools that used PCB-containing caulk between 1950 and 1978.

“Having the five-school pilot project is a positive first step,” Rosenthal said. “But I think ultimately a lot more will have to be done and all the schools will have to be tested.”
Judith Enck, the EPA’s regional coordinator, said in a statement that the study will help the federal agency understand the risk of PCB in caulk.

“We believe that the program outlined in this agreement, along with general EPA guidance on managing the issue, will serve as a model for school systems across the country,” Enck said in a statement.