PCBs found in window caulking during Columbus School renovation

BRIDGEPORT -- Students at Columbus School will get to spend another year in the so-called "swing space" school in the south end thanks to window caulk.
School building officials who have been working for two years to update and renovate the permanent school on George Street recently discovered the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, an organic compound and probable carcinogen, in the caulk that insulates the windows.
Recent changes in the Environmental Protection Agency laws led to the testing of the caulk, the Board of Education was told this week.
"It's a pretty serious problem," said Ray Wiley, the city's school building projects manager of O&G Industries. Wiley said the problem is that unlike asbestos, which can be easily removed, PCBs can seep into porous materials like concrete, making cleanup harder.
"We may have to take a good portion of the concrete out, which could jeopardize the structure of the building," said Wiley.
Wiley said options are being considered, but that it is unlikely the school will be ready to reopen in the 2010-11 school year.
For the past two years, the student body of Columbus have occupied a school at the edge of the University of Bridgeport campus. The school was built to host student bodies while their schools undergo major repairs or replacement. While other school renovation projects are in the works, none will be ready to start this fall, said Wiley.
Housing Columbus outside of its neighborhood has made it hard for some parents to access the school, but staff and students have made no secret of the fact that they prefer their temporary space, which is filled with new technology and equipment, to the aging structure they left.
Wiley told the school board the new testing requirement went into effect in November. The presence of PCB-laced caulk is not uncommon for buildings constructed between 1950 and 1978, he added. Columbus was built in 1965.
Earlier this school year, it was announced that PCBs were found in caulk around windows and doors at three technical high schools in the state, including Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden.
The board could not be told how much the removal of the material from Columbus will cost and whether cement infected with the chemical can be safely sealed rather than removed.
Wiley plans to have more information when he meets with the city's School Building Committee at 4 p.m., June 17 in City Hall Annex at 999 Broad Street.