The South Country school board is holding a special meeting on
Wednesday, Aug. 16, to further address environmental concerns at Frank
P. Long Intermediate School in Bellport.
The public portion of the board meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at Bellport
High School, located at 205 Beaver Dam Road in Brookhaven.
Glenn Neuschwender of Enviroscience Consultants, which has been testing the
property this summer — a $116,000 job ordered in June — is expected to detail
the firm’s latest findings.
“[Enviroscience] has tested every single instructional and office space in the
building,” South Country Superintendent Joseph Giani told GreaterPatchogue.
“They did the ambient air sampling, groundwater sampling … the consultants say
it’s the most comprehensive investigation of any school in New York State.”
A full report on those results is expected to be ready by Wednesday, before
the meeting, Dr. Giani said.
“It’s being worked up right now,” he said on Tuesday.
Frank P. Long has long been a concern of South Country parents and faculty
members, due mostly to its proximity to the town landfill less than a mile to
the north. In 2011, the town had to stop accepting sludge to the landfill after
students were sickened.
More recently, ongoing tests that had been ordered by the district — also
conducted by Enviroscience — revealed the presence of benzene outside the
school.
Those findings have since triggered another scare over health concerns — and
calls to shutter the school.
Meanwhile, the town is reportedly expected to close the landfill in eight years.
However, in an Aug. 10 letter addressed to Dr. Giania from the state
Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC regional director Carrie Meek
Gallagher indicated vehicular traffic was likely the cause of the benzene, which
is found in car exhaust, as opposed to the landfill.
The letter has since been published to the district website, under the Frank P.
Long Options and Testing page.
“Department staff’s review of the volatile organic chemical data did not uncover
and consistent patterns that would indicate there is any one specific, dominant
outdoor source of VOCs, other than the characteristic pattern of VOCs related to
vehicular traffic,” Gallagher wrote.
“The widespread claim that the Department determined the landfill to be the
predominant source of benzene found in the neighborhood is incorrect,” she also
wrote.
The district also recently published a letter from the state dated Aug. 10 to
Suffolk County health commissioner James Tomarken. In that letter, a state
health department official called the test results from inside the school
“unremarkable.”
“Overall, the results of the indoor air sampling that you provided were typical
of indoor environments,” wrote Elizabeth Lewis-Michi, a director of
environmental health assessment.
Enviroscience has been conducting tests at Frank P. Long since 2015.
The most recent round of testing included:
• Asbestos
• Mold
• Total Particulate
• Heavy metals
• Hydrogen sulfide
• Radon
• Volatile Organic Compounds
• Groundwater sampling and analysis
The board is waiting to review the test results before determining a path
forward.
Earlier this summer, the district outlined possible relocation options, should
the South Country have to abandon the school.
“The board of education would never consciously put anyone in harm’s way,” board
president Cheryl Felice said on Tuesday. “Health and safety is our number one
priority … I’m confident that we’ll have enough evidence to give the board the
basis for whatever decision it comes up with.”
Reprinted from