Indoor air detected to be carrying PCB's slightly above safe, long-term exposure guidelines for children under 12 have caused the school district and the Town of Branford to close the indoor pool and gymnasium at Walsh Intermediate School (WIS).

The two areas were closed as of Friday, August 25, just ahead of students arriving to begin the new school year on Monday, August 28. WIS serves Branford's public school students in grades 5 - 8. The pool at WIS is also used a town recreational swimming pool and as the team pool for the high school swim team.

An informational letter issued August 28 from Branford Public Schools noted the decision, made jointly by Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez and Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove, was being done as a "conservative measure."

"We took the advice of experts working on the project and closed the areas temporarily," Hernandez told Zip06/The Sound. "We're already relocating the swim team to the [Soundview Family] YMCA and we can use the current outdoor facility for PE [Physical Education] for the time being."

The levels were detected by environmental consultant Langan CT, Inc. during a pre-construction hazardous building material survey, in order to identify materials which would need removal during building renovations. The survey was done with the expectation of locating some presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in certain building caulking and glazing compounds, due to the age of the building, said Hernandez.

"PCB's are rather common in buildings built between 1950 through the early 1970's, as in the case of Walsh," said Hernandez. WIS was built in 1972.

Building materials with PCB levels at or above 50 parts per million need to be removed during renovation work, in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.

The $88.2 million WIS next-generation building project is anticipated to start in spring of 2018; although Branford is still waiting for State Bonding Commission approval granting approximately $30 million in state funds to help pay for the project. The commission was originally expected to vote on the town's funding application in late June 2017; but can't meet to decide until a state budget is finalized.

Langan's testing for PCB levels also followed EPA's Best Management Practices [BMP] for schools, which recommend, but don't require, conducting indoor air and wipe testing. The two tests determine if PCBs detected in building materials are also present in indoor air or dust. Langan collected 28 wipe samples, with all results below EPA recommended safe concentration. Langan collected 24 air samples, with 22 results falling safely below EPA recommended thresholds for elementary school children, older children, faculty and staff; and two air sample tests -- the gym and pool -- registering above safe levels for children under 12.

"At two locations only, the gymnasium and swimming pool areas, air sample results identified concentrations exceeding the [EPA] recommended guidelines for PCBs in indoor air for children under the age of 12 only, and not for any other category," the BPS letter states. "While the most conservative [EPA] indoor air guidance values assume exposure for eight hours a day and 185 days a year, in an abundance of caution, First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove, and Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez, decided that is it in the best interest of the students, faculty and community to proactively restrict access to the gymnasium, pool, auxiliary gym and locker rooms (which are served by air heating/cooling systems that are separate from the rest of the school), pending implementation of appropriate BMPs and retesting to confirm that air sample results in those areas are below the [EPA] recommended guidance levels for individuals of any age."

On behalf of the town and school district, Langan is working with the EPA and CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection to develop a course of action to respond to the increased levels, with additional air sampling conducted following those actions. Once the detected PCBs in the air are at safe concentrations for all ages, the closed areas will be re-opened for school and public use.

"We're anticipating having access to those areas sooner, rather than later," said Hernandez of efforts underway to safely re-open the pool and gym.

As the WIS pool and gym are both among parts of the original building which will be renovated and integrated into the next-generation WIS, both areas will later undergo "complete removal" of PCB-containing materials during the project's planned renovation/construction work, according to BPS.

Updates and links to more information are being posted by Branford Public Schools here