By Polly Mikula
Shortly after the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) chemicals were identified at Hartford High School and Hartford Area Career and Technical Center, the Hartford Select Board learned that over half of the school in White River Junction will need to be razed and rebuilt. How the district will come up with the funding for such a large and urgent project remains unclear.
At it’s most recent meeting, April 23, the Hartford School Board grappled with the scope of the remediation necessary.
“We are going to tear down 60% of the high school in all likelihood and have to rebuild it in record time,” Hartford School District Facilities Manager Jonathan Garthwaite explained to the board. “These are areas we have to demolish. There’s no way around it.”
PCB testing was mandated by Act 74, passed in 2021, which requires school districts to test for PCBs in educational facilities constructed prior to 1980. If found, cleanup is immediately mandated, too. While the state had initially seeded some money for such efforts, those funds have run out and there are no plans for reallocation.
PCBs are carcinogenic and exposure can also affect the body’s nervous, immune, reproductive and endocrine systems.
There is no way to remove the PCBs at Hartford High School as they are in cinder block walls, Garthwaite explained to the board.
At the meeting, April 23, the Hartford School Board considered redirecting a portion of the $21 million voters approved last year for other building repairs.
“This is much more than a planned renovation where we have years to consider what we’re doing. We’re dropping a bomb here,” Garthwaite said.
There also a chance that some fund could come from the Monsanto Corp. — which manufactured PCBs from the 1930s-1970s. The Hartford School district has joined about 100 other Vermont school districts in a lawsuit against the company. Bayer (the parent company of Monsanto) has settled other lawsuits brought against Monsanto for PCBs.
For now the district must put out requests for proposals for more bulk sampling at the high school and tech center and for the first phase of abatement.
The board will meet again this Wednesday, May 7. “Funding for PCB Remediation and Abatement” is on the agenda with Jacob Vezina, the district’s director of finance, scheduled to present a report to the board. The board may also receive more testing results. While Hartford Memorial Middle School tested negative for PCBs, the results from air test at the White River School (which were conducted over April break) were not received as of the last board meeting, according to Garthwaite.
The elementary schools Dothan Brook School and Ottauquechee School were built in the 1990s, and thus are exempt from testing because PCBs were banned in 1979 by the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
