Lead paint still a 'hazard' at playground after 15 years

Elliot Hall has always had a special history with children.

For over 70 years the building, known as Elliot City Hospital and then Elliot Community Hospital, welcomed babies into the world.

In 1973 Keene State College acquired the building, naming it Elliot Hall. In 1976 the Child Development Center (CDC) was developed to provide child care and instruction to children ages newborn to 6 from Keene and the surrounding communities. For nearly a quarter of a century, children have played on the CDC playground, adjacent to Elliot Hall's southeast corner, an open expanse of ground underneath 65 windows - not including the basement - housing faculty and staff offices.

At the start of this school year, KSC released a public notice regarding the playground's safety.

The July 27, 2007 press release stated, the college was "installing a fence around the back of Elliot Center, which boarders the Child Development Center (CDC) playground, as part of a multistep lead abatement program to address paint chips that have fallen from the trim of the historic building."

However, a seven-month investigation by The Equinox has found this past year was not the first time the college had to deal with exposed lead paint on Elliot Hall's exterior overlooking the CDC playground.

In 1993, staff concerns prompted an environmental analysis, concluding Elliot Hall, "poses a significant health hazard in its present condition," according to documents provided by a confidential source to The Equinox. That health hazard was the presence of non-intact lead-based paint on the building overlooking the CDC playground, according to a document from Aug. 30, 1993.

Flaking and non-intact lead paint has been judged a health hazard, particularly for infants, children and pregnant women since 1971 federal legislation that established lead-based paint and lead poisoning definitions, and addressed lead paint in government housing.

Government concerns about lead paint and children were reflected on Mar. 31, 2008 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules requiring contractors renovating buildings where children could be exposed to lead paint to take additional precautions. The new rules take effect in 2010.

According to the Aug. 30, 1993 document, "paint on the windows on the first, second and third floors is flaking and peeling and pieces of the paint were found in the garden and the sandbox areas of the CDC playground." In 2007 lead paint on Elliot Hall was noted as "significantly damaged with chalking and flaking observed in many locations," according to a July 23, 2007 memorandum from Laura Stockfisch of Covino Environmental Associates Inc. to Sylvie Rice, KSC Environmental, Health and Safety coordinator.

When asked where the majority of the paint chips fell in 1993, Physical Plant Director Frank Mazzola said, "I can't say." He said he could speculate it was probably by the "sunroom" windows because that was where the college focused its "corrective energies at the time."

Paint chips found in 2007

Despite initial efforts to correct the situation in 1993 and 1994, in spring 2007 "a concerned parent noticed that paint chips had fallen from Elliot Center onto the ground between the building and surrounding shrubs," according to the July 27, 2007 press release. Following the discovery Covino was retained "to determine whether there was lead in the paint," and analytical results of the paint chip samples contained between 8.53 and 16.17 percent lead by weight, according to the press release.

The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 defined lead-based paint as "paint or other surface coatings that contain lead in excess of 1.0 milligrams per centimeter squared or 0.5 percent by weight."

Jay Kahn, vice president for Finance and Planning, said, "We don't know if the areas that were treated in '93 are the source of today. I don't know if you can make that determination."

According to the Aug. 30, 1993 report, the "recommended minimum mitigation is to scrape and paint all non-intact leaded exterior components that overlook the CDC playground." Four months later, in December 1993, workers from MARCOR Environmental Inc. performed a lead abatement and encapsulation on Elliot Hall, according to a December 1993 report obtained by The Equinox in September 2007.

According to a Dec. 23, 1993 purchase order, the "removal of lead paint" was to be performed on 58 windows, an exterior door, an entryway and "upper trim and pillars on the CDC side of Ellt. (Elliot) Hall." All exposed areas were to be primed and sealed, according to the document. According to the invoice from MARCOR dated Jan. 13, 1994, all the listed work was completed costing the college $12,275.

Additionally, the college paid Desmarais Environmental Inc., an environmental consulting firm of Barrington, N.H., $322 for project monitoring and an air sample analysis on the CDC playground, and $140 to determine the presence of lead paint on Elliot Hall, according to invoices dated Sept. 13 and Dec. 31, 1993.

Both Kahn and Mazzola said they "don't know" the total cost of the work done in 1993 related to lead paint on Elliot Hall.

"It was a long time ago," said Mazzola.

Mazzola said the area the college was most concerned about in 1993 was Elliot Hall's southernmost wing underneath the "sunrooms," which overlooks the CDC playground.

"So that is where we chose to replace all the windows in that area in that 1993, 1994 time period," he said. "We thought that was where the greater risk resided, and that was the appropriate action at the time."

Below the sunrooms is the CDC playground.

In a Feb. 3, 1994 letter to Vicki Farer, then KSC Health and Safety coordinator, Michael Sweet, an industrial hygienist for Desmarais Environmental Inc., wrote, "The scope of work included scraping all the non-intact lead-based paint on the exterior window components and wood trim and then encapsulating the woodwork with either a paint or varnish."