Nov. 16 (UPI) — A third-party report on the grounds and building of Missouri’s Jana Elementary School found no harmful levels of radioactive materials there, while the original firm that identified contamination stood by their report.
The conflicting investigations left the Hazelwood School Board in Florissant, Mo., in a quandary Tuesday over Jana Elementary School and how to move forward during a board meeting.
SCI Engineering told the board its findings supported one done by the Army Corps of Engineers saying that there were no harmful levels of radioactive materials in the school building and on the grounds.
The campus sits in the floodplain of the contaminated Coldwater Creek, which was polluted with radioactive waste in the 1940s from a plant that processed uranium during the country’s atomic weapons program.
Jessica Keeven, of SCI Engineering, who is also a Florissant native who once attended the elementary school, said her firm found no radioactive threat.
The corps said while it previously found radioactive hotspots on the creek bank at the Jana property, it discovered nothing inside the school, playground, or fields that would require remediation.
But Boston Chemical Company stood behind its report, saying it found radioactive contamination, specifically a chemical by-product called lead 210, in and around the school.
Boston Chemical said that its findings, which used a similar methodology to the one used by the Department of Energy, made them concerned about health risks to people at and around the school.
The school board closed the school last month due to the Boston Chemical report. Students are attending school virtually and will attend other schools in the district after Thanksgiving.
