Schools

Cranston Schools get Chemical Cleanout thanks to EPA Settlement

Hundreds of bottles of old and expired chemicals that have been collecting dust for years — or even decades — are off to recycling. And science space at Cranston High Schools East and West got a much needed housecleaning.

It's all thanks to a major settlement between the Environmental Protection Agency and Providence chemical company Northland, a subsidiary of PSC that agreed to spend more than $250,000 to help clean up and remove chemicals in dozens of area schools.

A cadre of national, state and local officials were on hand at Cranston High School West last week to highlight the program just days before students were scheduled to return to school.

And those students will find their science classrooms looking a whole lot cleaner and more organized. Dozens of old bottles of chemicals used in the science curriculum have been emptied, rinsed and lined up for recycling. Others are to be hauled off to be disposed of safely by PSC at no charge to the district; removing chemicals typically can cost a school district many thousands of dollars.

A storage area has been drastically thinned-out of old materials and what's left is labeled and organized on labeled racks. And with assistance from PSC and EPA scientists, everything is stored in accordance with the latest environmental and safety regulations so volatile and reactive substances aren't stored near each other, for example.

"Cranston Public Schools are always looking for collaborative partners and we are really thankful for this opportunity," said Superintendent Judith Lundsten. "Not only for the cost savings, but more importantly to ensure we have the safest learning environment for the children in our schools."

The EPA's regional director, Curt Spaulding, said it's a huge bonus for the community to have a company like PSC be willing to invest in the program, which began 10-years ago thanks to the efforts of Dwight Peavey, an EPA scientist. 

Along with the chemical removal program, PSC has agreed to pay a $58,000 fine, Spaulding said. Normally, fines end up absorbed in the federal budget for the EPA, so settlements like this are a useful way for local regions to make up for budget cuts and limited resources.

"No environmental law or regulation is addressing chemical storage in schools — they have to do the best they can with with they have," Spaulding said.

Crews have been working in area schools since February and in Rhode Island, nothing on the banned chemicals list has been found in any school. Cranston, in particular, has done a good job with compliance, Spaulding said. But like many other districts, things tend to accumulate over the years.

In many cases, it's a matter of a teacher retiring and a new teacher inheriting old chemicals that have been tucked away on a back shelf for who-knows-how-long. As time goes on, the dust begins to accumulate.

In addition to the cleanup and removal help, PSC is refurbishing safety equipment and in some cases, helping schools install new safety showers, eye washes and other storage devices.

The other pillar of the program is meant to make chemical management in schools easier in the future. Each school will get help setting up a database of all chemicals stored at the school that will be uploaded to the Internet. At the end of the year, it makes knowing what chemicals to order much easier and will eliminate over-ordering, Peavey said. It also is a useful tool for firefighters and first responders who will have access to the database as well.

And then there's the transition to "green chemistry," Peavey said. The database helps teachers identify what chemicals can be used as alternatives to other, more hazardous ones. In many cases, the same type of reaction needed for an experiment can be achieved with chemicals that are less harmful to the environment. It's a practice that is quickly becoming standard operating procedure in the chemical industry itself, so introducing it to schools "improves the level of stewardship in our communities," Spaulding said.

Kevin Fitzgerald of PSC said the violations occurred at the Northland facility of Atwells Avenue in Providence in 2009. They were primarily labeling and storage in nature. Those violations were resolved immediately.



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