THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511181610
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The city will continue to test for methane gas at Lakeview Elementary School through the end of next month. By then, it may submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency several solutions for dealing with any potential health risks at the school.
Federal authorities have said that neither the school nor its campus poses an immediate health threat to students, staffers or neighborhood residents. Still, they have urged the city to investigate further.
City and school district officials met with EPA representatives on Friday and agreed to the additional testing.
Lakeview was built in the late 1960s in the southeast corner of a former city dump. Before the school was constructed, trash and other materials were removed from that section, federal officials confirmed.
But federal investigators raised questions about lead and other potentially hazardous materials the EPA first collected at the site in the summer of 1994. The state asked the EPA to step in after its own screenings in 1992 and 1993 showed lead in soil taken from the playground area.
The playground recently was relocated to the school's west side, in an area where lead had not been detected at harmful levels, said School Board Attorney George Willson.
For several months, the district has monitored indoor air quality at the school. Methane, a potentially harmful gas often detected near or inside landfills, hasn't been detected inside the school. But low levels were detected outside, Willson said.
In one of its reports, the EPA concluded that ``there are no immediate health problems from conditions at the school.''
Lakeview Principal Isaac L. Askew, who lives in the surrounding Cavalier Manor neighborhood, said Friday that his position had not changed: He said he still didn't feel that any of the kids or staffers were in jeopardy. by CNB