Mill Valley Middle School Toxin's report underlines potential risk

The risk of toxic exposure to the Mill Valley Middle School would be high if the contractors would disrupt a clay cap under the school without strict reduction and reaction plan, according to a provisional report.

The Mill Valley School District described the results in a statement on Tuesday. The district, which wants to build a new middle school, prefers the current campus in the 425 Sycamore Ave., But critics are concerned about the pollution of the former City Burn dump at the location.

The statement of the district also comes to an earlier review, which indicates a little risk of toxic exposure at the location as long as the cap is untouched.

“Our concern is what happens if the construction inevitably violates the protective ground cap -unleashes the box of a Pandora box with contaminants -while our children breathe and learn next door”, a group of critical parents who are published on their website under MVMSMSMOTTERITIONMESS.com.

The parents have also taken care of the effects of the rising sea.

“Even in the middle scenario, we will see 1.4 foot rise until 2070,” said the website.

The district has not announced a decision where the new middle school is to be built.

The risk factors were outlined in a preliminary risk assessment or peas from soil, ground steam and water samples at the location. It was carried out by Ninyo and Moore, an environmental technology company that advises for the district.

The report on the risk assessment was published on April 8th. It is checked by the Californian Department of Toxic Substance Control and Marin County Environmental Health Services. The school district has published a copy of the report on its website.

“We understand that some parishioners have concerns after reading the peas,” Elizabeth Kaufman, the superintendent of the district. “It is important to remember that this is still a draft.”

Thanne Berg, an official of the Department of Toxic Substance Control, said that she would “evaluate proposed measures with the aim of protecting children, employees and the environment from the potential effects of exposure to dangerous materials”.

Berg listed the goals of the preliminary evaluation of the hazard as: “1) Cold in the floor, groundwater and surface water and ground steam data in order to develop a conceptual location model; 2) identify and evaluate the extent of the contamination of contamination of potential concern. 3) enter.

The city landfill from the 1900s to the 1950s. The location was covered with 2 to 3 feet of Sandton before the middle school was built in 1969.

“The draft peas also evaluated future risks and determined whether the protective cap – without the reduction measures – that were theoretically exposed to the maximum concentrations of chemicals in landfill waste, an increased health risk due to exposure of over three years for students and 26 years for staff for personnel”.

“In accordance with what is expected on former landfill, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum products and dioxins were found in the landfill waste above the conservative housing screening level,” said the district. “The future risk will be assessed on the basis of a hypothetical living scenario, since it is much more harmful to health than other threshold values ​​and has a longer -term exposure period.”

According to the district, the lead was higher than the conservative housing screening level at a maximum concentration over the 280 -fold. Arsen became over 15 times greater than the local background concentration with a maximum concentration. With maximum concentration over the 21 -times higher value, dioxins were demonstrated higher than the housing screening level.

Using this information, a response plan is created that identifies the necessary measures to reduce the reduction in order to tackle the risk and to ensure the ongoing safe use of the location, said the district.

“The district will not disturb the landfill cap without ensuring that there are reasonable reduction measures – both during a construction period and in the final design of the proposed project,” the explanation says.

Bruce Dorfman, a Mill Valley -based and partner of the development company Thompson and Dorfman, said that the process is often used in the entire state.

“In California, as far as the available country is limited, it is sustainable and intelligent to reuse real estate with a history of pollution, as long as it can be made sure,” said Dorfman, whose company is frequently contaminated and renovated.

“Environmental reduction measures are an established and effective way to tackle the properties of Brownfield properties,” said Dorfman.

“A good example of this is the Mill Valley Community Center, which is also located at the former landfill,” added Dorfman. “The location of the community center was tidied up and a gas barrier membrane system was installed on the basis of new buildings to prevent remaining vapors from influencing the inner air within buildings.”

The options for the school location and provisional institutions are assessed in the upcoming draft for environmental impact assessments that are published this summer, the district said.

The district “is also aware that parents have expressed concerns about potential floods and increasing groundwater levels that could exacerbate the spread of contamination in nearby waterways,” the explanation said.

The building hours on campus include importing clean soil in order to increase the increase in the pad as a response to potential seawater and groundwater increase. Both problems are also examined as part of the provisional assessment of the risk and the draft of the environmental impact process, said the district.

The draft of peas with comments from state and local authorities is expected to be available this summer for public review and a comment.

Originally published: May 1, 2025 at 3:55 p.m. PDT