No documentation found for removal of contaminated soil

While lead-based paint chips are one way for children to get lead poisoning, another way is by lead contaminated soil in areas such as playgrounds.

"Soil is a huge issue," said Katie Lajoie, a New Hampshire public health nurse, at a Keene State College lecture focusing on lead poisoning in children in October 2007. She said lead doesn't go away once it was distributed into the environment.

"A child doesn't have to eat paint chips. They just have to be a normal child in an environment that contains lead," said Dr. Michael Shannon, chief emeritus of Emergency Services and associate director of the Children's Hospital Pediatric Environmental Health Center at Children's Hospital Boston, who also spoke at the lecture.

One year after federal legislation was passed in 1992 to address lead-based paint in residential buildings, Keene State College had the exterior of Elliot Hall overlooking the Child Development Center playground tested for lead paint following staff concerns.

In addition, a Sept. 29, 1993 report stated the interior of the CDC facility in the basement of Elliot Hall was also tested.

According to an Aug. 30, 1993 report "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 sandbox areas of the CDC playground."

A Sept. 29, 1993 report regarding the testing of the interior of the CDC for lead stated, "the three areas of the CDC inspected are in good condition, with the exception of the original style windows in some of the rooms in the preschool area. Approximately 50 percent of these leaded window components were found to be non-intact." The leaded windows were located in the tool room, cubby room, bathroom and kitchen, according to the report.

Along with the testing of interior and exterior surfaces of Elliot Hall, the Aug. 30, 1993 report recommended a third test be performed in which "soil samples be taken along the edge of the building to determine whether the lead paint flaking off the windows has been absorbed by the soil in the garden area and the children's sandbox."

Ten soil samples taken from the CDC playground were received by Industrial and Environmental Analysts Inc. on Nov. 15, 1993, and analyzed on Nov. 24, according to IEA Laboratory Results which is in the December 1993 report. The concentration of lead ranged from 64 to 1,240 milligrams per kilogram or parts per million (ppm).

According to a 2007 laboratory report from ProScience Analytical Services Inc. in Woburn, Mass., milligrams per kilogram equals ppm by weight.

On June 23, 1993 the New Hampshire State Senate approved a bill stating a "lead base substance" would be present in soil when the level was equal to or greater than 1,000 ppm. The law took effect July 1, 1994.

Only one soil sample, which was taken two feet from Elliot Hall in 1993, was above the level defining a "lead based substance."

Based on current state and federal standards, the levels of three soil samples, which were taken two feet from the building, would be considered a lead hazard.

Current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and New Hampshire public health law consider 400 ppm lead a hazard in bare soil of a children's play area.

Desmarais Environmental Inc., who performed the lead testing for the college both inside and outside Elliot Hall, outlined abatement options for the playground soil in a letter - included in the December 1993 report - to Vicki Farer, KSC's former Health and Safety coordinator. One of the abatement options involved replacing the soil to a depth of six inches for the entire playground, which Desmarais recommended.

"Although this is the most expensive option, it also minimizes the most liability," the letter signed by Sweet stated.

Farer, who is currently employed as a skills application teacher in the technology, design and safety department at KSC, did not reply to two e-mail requests seeking comment, and could not be reached by phone.

In December 1993 a remediation was performed on Elliot Hall overlooking the CDC playground, and was finished in the spring of 1994, according to the December 1993 report and Physical Plant Director Frank Mazzola.

While there was documentation regarding the lead remediation to the building in 1993, two current and one former KSC staff members didn't know what happened to the lead contaminated soil on the playground.

"I could find no documentation that [the soil] was removed," said Sylvie Rice, Environmental, Health and Safety coordinator, whose two daughters attended the CDC. "I think what happened was they brought in cover and put bushes in there to prevent the exposure along the drip line to the children."

"I remember us dealing with [the soil] by turning it into planted space that kids wouldn't play in," said Caro Dellenbaugh, who was the CDC director from 1991 to 1996, and now lives in Freeport, Maine.

Bud Winsor, assistant director for the Physical Plant, said, "I started in August of 1993, and I don't recall that (soil removal) being done, since I have been here."

Approximately two years after the lead paint was addressed on Elliot Hall, fresh soil was put down during a summer project, which began July 1, 1996 and ended during the third week of August, said Winsor.

He said the project included the playground, Elliot Hall and Wyman Way, which runs parallel to the building's south side.

Winsor said construction work on Wyman Way occurred because of utilities, and the visitor's parking lot was built at that time. The playground work, which also involved the removal of an old concrete sandbox and addition of a tricycle path, was precipitated by the removal and repair of a collapsed roof drain on Elliot Hall, he said. Winsor said the soil that was added was only within the tricycle path.

"I'm very positive we didn't do anything against the building," he said.