BEVERLY — Shore Country Day School has hired an outside consultant to assess the potential health risks caused by contamination coming from the former Varian site.
Head of School Clair Ward said the school decided it needed an independent expert to keep an eye on the environmental cleanup being conducted by Varian, the company that is responsible for the toxic chemicals that have spread underground into the nearby neighborhood, which includes Shore Country Day School.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing the cleanup, but Ward said the state agency is “under-resourced” and has several other projects around the state to monitor.
“Right now we’re relying on other folks who have many different things to think about and projects to consider,” Ward said. “We at Shore have only one project we’re concerned about, and that’s this one.”
Varian and the DEP say there are no known health risks to residents or schoolchildren due to the Varian chemicals, which include cancer-causing trichloroethylene, that were dumped years ago and have spread in the groundwater. The company and the state have conducted several tests over the last year inside homes and businesses and have concluded that the underground chemicals are not getting into the indoor air.
Ward said Shore Country Day School trusts Varian and the DEP, but school officials decided they needed their own experts to monitor the situation. She said the school has hired Brown and Caldwell, an environmental engineering firm based in California.
“We really need professionals to look over our shoulder and help,” Ward said. “It’s not like we believe that anyone is not presenting the right picture. I don’t actually expect the results to yield anything sensational. We just want to be secure.”
Shore Country Day is a private school with about 400 students from pre-K to ninth grade. It is located at 545 Cabot St. on a 17-acre campus, across the railroad tracks and downhill from the former Varian site at 150 Sohier Road.
Varian has been conducting a state-ordered cleanup of underground chemicals for decades, but residents and local officials have expressed concern that high levels remain in the groundwater. A plume of chemicals underlies the neighborhood and Shore Country Day School, although the exact extent of the plume is unknown.
In a statement, Varian said its testing last summer at Shore Country Day School’s fields and surrounding shallow water found no contamination in those areas.
“Not just findings within normal standards, but no contamination at all,” the statement said.
The company said it will issue a report with results of new tests around Jan. 31. It said the newer tests also showed no contamination.
Varian said Shore hired the consultant “out of an abundance of caution.” The company said it is committed to working closely with the consultant, as well as with DEP and the community.
Last year Shore closed two of its fields and an outdoor classroom over concerns about contamination from Varian. It has since reopened the fields, but the outdoor classroom remains closed.
Ward said the threat of contamination has not hurt enrollment at Shore.
“My families are in a fine place,” she said. “They were hoping that we would consider hiring a neutral consultant to look at all of this through our lens. The fact that we’ve done this is a relief.”
Ward said the assessments that will be conducted by the outside consultant will benefit the entire neighborhood as well as the school.
“We don’t function independently from the neighborhood,” she said. “Whatever health those fields are in directly relates to the state of health for the neighborhood.”
“I don’t want to cast aspersions on anyone else,” Ward added. “Varian has to do Varian and our neighborhood has to do our neighborhood. We don’t have that technical expertise on our side. It’s only fair that we have that expertise.”
Voices of Concern North Beverly, the neighborhood group that formed in response to the Varian contamination, is “supportive and appreciative” of Shore’s decision to bring in an outside consultant, group member Laurel Lucrezia said.
“We have always viewed Shore as an important part of our community,” Lucrezia said. “The path of contamination doesn’t discern by property line. We are all neighbors and in this together to ensure a safe environment for our homes, families and environment, and that includes the staff and students at Shore.”
A spokesman for DEP said the agency is working closely with city officials and local residents on the site, but had no further comment.
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.
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