[CPEO-BIF] Schools built on brownfields---Rhode Island court ruling

["Hersh, Robert" <hersh@WPI.EDU>]

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
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