Interim Controls to Avoid School Shutdown due to PCBs in Building Materials

JFK Middle School was planning a demolition and renovation project involving window and door replacement for the school building. The project’s intent was to renovate the school buildings “as new”.

The Town of Enfield retained Fuss & O’Neill to sample and analyze all caulking and glazing compounds that would be impacted by the school renovations. The results of the sampling showed very high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The U.S. EPA recommended that Fuss & O’Neill sample the air at the school for PCBs, and levels greater than EPA recommendations were discovered. At this point the Town had two choices: shut the school down or come up with an Interim Control Plan that would keep PCB levels in the air below the EPA recommendations for students in the middle school age group. The Town did not have another school large enough to support students, faculty, and administration that would be displaced if the Middle School was shut down, so the Interim Control Plan was the selected option.

Fuss & O’Neill wrote the PCBs Interim Controls Plan. Approval of the Pan by the U.S. EPA allowed the school to remain open. Fuss & O’Neill provided air monitoring services every fiscal quarter for three years until all renovations and removal of the PCBs were completed.