EPA Requires Pre-1979 Caulk to be Removed

EPA Requires Pre-1979 Caulk to be Removed

Summary of the Jan 27th EPA message:

The message from the EPA is getting clearer. SMMUSD has deadlines it must reach by March 30th, 2014 that includes plans for removing all caulk with known concentrations above 50 ppm, mitigate or remove deteriorating caulk pre-1979, and test ALL rooms pre-1979. This will be a task for Environ once their contract is in place and they begin. As of this morning, Sandra Lyon said this is not completed.

The EPA has not received the full analytical data report required in the workplan from the District so the EPA cautions that preliminary findings in this letter could change upon review of the workplan final report. Also, the EPA’s own test data is not back yet. That said, the tests done on 5 rooms (1,5,8,301,library) that were done by Phylmar Group, show that the cleaning helped to reduce PCBs from the air and dust :) The EPA recommends that the District annually clean the school like they did to maintain air quality.

This letter does not address the 13 other rooms pre-tested, cleaned and post-tested were not a part of this workplan and did not follow EPA restrictions of closing the windows or informing the EPA 3 days in advance to observe collections of air samples. We know that the windows were open during testing in many of the 13 rooms tested.

The EPA does not have a health based threshold for PCB impacted caulk so at this time, it uses air and dust samples to determine exposure. I am doing some research on this methodology and waiting for some experts to get back to me.

Click Here for the Full EPA Letter

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