Think of soil remediation at the proposed elementary site as a five-pronged approach, says USD 257 Board of Education president Dan Willis.
The process involves SJCF Architects, a firm working for the school district; the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; the Environmental Protection Agency; their soil remediation contractor in Iola, Veterans Worldwide; and the soil testing company Terracon Environmental Services.
?They?re all in communication and they?re all trying to bulldoze the roadblocks of bureaucracy,? Willis explained.
That?s just part of the complex answer to the Ask the Register question from I.B. Woodward, a former Iolan who now lives in Wichita: ?How close would the new school be to the old stockyards and foundry? Is this land environmentally safe??
The school district has designated land near Kentucky and Monroe streets as the site for a new elementary school. The $25.5 million bond issue will go to voters April 2 for that school along with options to build a new science and technology building at the high school for $7 million and new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems at the middle school for $2.8 million.
The proposed elementary school site is at the intersection of Kentucky and Monroe streets in Iola.
Many have expressed concerns about the safety of building on land that once was the home of an iron works foundry and zinc smelting operation.
But soil remediation is not a new subject to Iolans, or even to USD 257.
About 400 properties already have undergone soil remediation in recent years, with a list of about 971 or so still to go, as part of the EPA?s Superfund Redevelopment project.
EPA spokesperson Benjamin Washburn told the Register cleanup is expected to begin this spring for residential properties with high lead and arsenic concentrations. Cleanup involves removing contaminated soil, backfilling with new soil and reestablishing the lawn.
The process is expected to take about four years. The first soil remediation took place in 2006.
Previous cleanup efforts included McKinley and Lincoln elementary school properties and the Iola Middle School practice fields in 2013. More work was found at McKinley as well as the property for the Crossroads school, the maintenance shop and at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
?This is a process Iolans have become accustomed to watching,? Willis said.
