EPA to Inspect New York City Classrooms for PCBs

By DEVLIN BARRETT
In an escalating dispute with New York City education officials, federal authorities say they will soon begin inspecting classrooms for PCB contamination because the city is downplaying the potential danger to children.
The city, in turn, said that if the Environmental Protection Agency gets what it wants, it will cause 15,000 teacher layoffs.
The EPA notified the city's Department of Education last week that it doesn't agree with the city's claim that the PCB-contaminated material poses no immediate threat to students or school staff. The EPA also challenges the city's estimate that it would cost $1 billion to replace the aging fluorescent lighting fixtures that are the chief suspects of PCB contamination in schools.
The EPA has recommended the city immediately begin removing the older fixtures suspected of leaking PCBs, or polychlorinated byphenyls, a potentially cancer-causing chemical linked to numerous other health problems, including reproductive and immune disorders. PCBs were often used in construction and electrical components starting in the 1950s, but were banned in 1978.
The city contends there is little scientific evidence to show that inhaled PCBs like those in the schools pose an immediate health risk.
Judith Enck, the EPA's regional administrator in New York, notified the city by letter that as long as it resisted efforts to quickly replace the suspect lighting fixtures, the EPA would send its own personnel into schools to inspect light fixtures. The inspections are planned to begin early next month.
Ms. Enck chided the city for not taking action, saying other school systems around the country are removing light fixtures with PCBs. She criticized the city's $1 billion estimate for the work, saying her agency has "no understanding of how this figure was arrived at,'' particularly since a 2008 city estimate said it would cost $1.2 billion to remove the lights in all city-owned buildings, not just the schools.
Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Education, said that such light fixtures exist in schools and buildings around the country, yet New York "is the only school district in the nation that the EPA is threatening with an enormous unfunded mandate. We are working with the Obama administration to find solutions that do not impose a $1 billion unfunded mandate on city taxpayers that would force 15,000 teacher layoffs.''
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., Manhattan), who has criticized the Bloomberg administration for not moving quickly, praised the EPA Monday for addressing "an issue of immediate concern, which does pose very real health risks in the here and now.''