Malibu High To Get $400K Dirt Project To Remove Minute Traces Of PCB

Written by on August 15, 2018

It will be expensive …. 400 thousand dollars.

But Malibu community advisors say removing tons of dirt at the Malibu High School campus … dirt with tiny … barely detectable amounts of PCB in the soil … is worth it.

That’s according to the school district …. which announced yesterday that trace amounts of PCBs were detected in soil under demolished Malibu High buildings.

The amounts are “far below” amounts set by the federal government as hazardous.

District facilities director Cary Upton:

NEWSCART 77671 UPTON :55 AAAA QQQ: WAS IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY

“What we’ve heard from the community members is that they would like us to go beyond the minimum. …

“We did call a meeting of the the Malibu Facilities District Advisory Committee … which is made up of community members from Malibu … and ask for their advice on this.

“And they advised after a long discussion – as to what do do — that we go ahead and follow through with the removal of the soil that was tested that contains PCBs.”

KBUU REPORTER: “I imagine people were saying, are you spending money wisely here, taking dirt out that is barely touched by …”

UPTON TALKS OVER:  “There was a long discussion about that, and a real question on what this i , what is the precedent on this, whether it’s the right thing to do on this is, and the committee members really weighed in on what they thought was important and necessary.”

Upton says its a big dig.

NEWSCART 77670 UPTON BBBB :12 QQQ: DIRT THAT WE WOULD HAVE REUSED.
“This is dirt that we would have reused.

“What were doing is, we’re going down 5 feet anyway.

The difference was this

That dirt will be trucked off … at a cost of 400 thousand dollars … and fresh replacement dirt trucked in.

It’s a painful decision for a district that is counting every penny … every penny as it spends more than $80 million on the current reconstruction project …

And it’s going to the voters for another $175 million dollars this fall to build the next phase of the new Malibu high school.

The high school “Get Your Stuff Day” is today.

Lots of kids on campus.

The soil is being removed starting tomorrow … and over the next four days, ending on Monday the 20th (if necessary).

Tuesday the 21st is when teachers and staff return to the campus.

Air monitoring will be conducted during all excavation and loading activities.

Dust mitigation control efforts will be in place during the excavation, truck loading and departure from the site, the district says.

13 hundred 88 cubic yards will be dug up and trucked out … about 100 dump truck loads.


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