From: | "Hersh, Robert" <hersh@WPI.EDU> |
Date: | 30 Jan 2007 21:39:51 -0000 |
Reply: | cpeo-brownfields |
Subject: | [CPEO-BIF] Schools built on brownfields---Rhode Island court ruling |
Providence, Rhode Island FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 30, 2007 Contact: Steven Fischbach 401-274-2652 x-182 steve.fischbach@gmail.com Gilberta Taylor, Hartford Park Residents Association 401-421-2101 JUDGE ORDERS CITY TO NOTIFY PARENTS, SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ABOUT CONTAMINATION AT SCHOOL SITE Superior Court Justice Edward C. Clifton has ordered the City of Providence to notify parents and school employees at two public schools built on top of the former Providence City dump about contamination found at the site. The two schools, Carnevale Elementary and DelSesto Middle School, located on Springfield Street in Providence, were hastily built on top of the former dump despite community concerns about the long term safety of students and workers at the schools. In an order signed on January 24, 2007, Judge Clifton ordered the City to send notices to parents and school workers within 30 days in both English and Spanish that informs the reader of "the nature and extent of contamination found at the Site, the design and purpose of the measures undertaken to remediate the Site, and a description of the quarterly monitoring measures" used to determine the safety of the schools. This notice must also be given out annually to new students and workers at the schools. Judge Clifton's four page order provides a number of ways for the public to know more about environmental conditions at the two schools, and requires the City to comply with existing environmental laws and regulations when siting new schools. For example, Judge Clifton ordered the City to participate in a document repository found on the Internet that was established by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management ("DEM"). The City must send electronic copies of various documents to DEM in electronic form, such as the results of the quarterly monitoring of indoor air quality, soil gas and groundwater, which enables DEM to let the public view them on the agency's web site. DEM's Internet document repository can be found on the Internet at http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/waste/springfd.htm The City must also distribute notices at the Schools when DEM schedules community meetings about environmental conditions at the schools. "Judge Clifton's ruling is a small step towards assuring the safety of the schools for our children and our neighbors' children" said Gilberta Taylor, President of the Hartford Park Residents Association, which along with a neighbor and two parents of children attending public school in Providence brought suit back in 1999 to stop the schools from opening. "We hope Judge Clifton's order forces the City to repair the sinkholes around the school, and to take extra care to protect children from landfill gases and other contaminants at the school site." In October of 2005, Judge Clifton ruled that the City and DEM broke state environmental laws and regulations when the schools were sited and approved. In April of 2006, Judge Clifton ordered DEM to establish a stakeholder group to develop better rules for public involvement in contaminated site clean ups and for ways DEM should consider issues of environmental equity in site clean ups. The stakeholder group has been meeting since November of 2006. Information on the stakeholder group is available on DEM's web site at http://www.dem.ri.gov/envequity/index.htm The lawsuit challenging the siting of the two schools was brought by Rhode Island Legal Services ("RILS"), which provides free representation to low income clients and client groups in civil matters. RILS attorney Steven Fischbach, who represented the plaintiffs in this case has also been involved in legal proceedings regarding the siting of a new high school in Providence on the site of the former Gorham Silver Manufacturing Company, which is contaminated with cancer causing solvents that were used at the site. Bob Hersh CPEO _______________________________________________ Brownfields mailing list Brownfields@list.cpeo.org http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/brownfields | |
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