The city of Gainesville, Florida, needed to choose a site for a dump. Of all the places it could have chosen during its search in the late 1950s, the local government settled on an unlikely location: the backyard of a school. Joseph Williams Elementary sat on the east side, in the predominantly Black part of town.
Where children played, the ground bubbled. Birds swarmed, feeding on trash. At one point, a pile of 20 dead dogs and cats were dropped in the yard of the elementary school, just 100 feet away from classrooms. This was no ordinary playground.
A horrific stench of dead rats and decomposing garbage was impossible to escape, recalled Wayne Fields, who still lives in his childhood home opposite the site. âThe smell was so bad, during school, after school,â said Fields, a 69-year-old businessman. âIt was ridiculous.â
Both of Fieldsâs parents were teachers at the school. âWe used to say that when we turn off the light we can all see each other because we are glowing from the chemicals,â he said.
Despite violating multiple health statutes, the local government was unbothered. âThis is a necessary evil. I think weâre doing a very fine job,â then-City Manager William Green said in 1963. Besides, he said, the city poured âglorified perfumeâ on the garbage every so often.
This ânecessary evilâ has haunted this Florida community for decades. Sixty years later, the site is overgrown grassland, but contamination at the school still poses a large risk to studentsâ health. In the last few years, community members have called on the Alachua County school district and state agencies to assess the connection between the contaminated land and health issues in the area.
It is often difficult to show a direct link between a contaminant and adverse health impacts, and no such investigation has yet been done at the school. But for years soil and air testing have consistently revealed evidence of substantial environmental toxins on the property. Levels of the carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene peaked in 2020 at a concentration up to 218 times higher than what is considered safe for direct exposure in residential settings. Researchers, meanwhile, have pinpointed East Gainesville as an asthma hot spot.
For decades, a rotating cast of city, county, and state officials have been aware of the contaminants in the school yard â and have taken little action to address the problem, The Intercept found in an investigation based on hundreds of public and archival documents, government emails obtained through records requests, and interviews with dozens of Gainesville residents.
Alachua County officials have proposed renovations to the school and overseen the removal of some contaminated soil from the property in the last decade, while a local nurseâs advocacy prompted the state health and environmental protection departments to order additional soil testing in recent years. Their primary focus has not been the former landfill but another contaminant discovered decades ago: abandoned oil tanks. Yet whatâs needed, former school district employees and community members say, is nothing short of the removal of the school in its entirety, a full cleanup of the site itself, and a comprehensive assessment of the impact of soil toxins on studentsâ health. Neither the school district nor the Florida Department of Environmental Protection seem willing to go that far.
âWilliams Elementary is safe,â said Jackie Johnson, a spokesperson for Alachua County Public Schools, in an email to The Intercept. She added that the school board hasnât received a formal recommendation to demolish or majorly reconstruct the school and that the district has no current plans to do so.
District representatives met with the Department of Environmental Protection in January, Johnson said, and âit was made clear that there is currently no health threat to students or staff at the school.â
But just last month, the school board and the environmental protection department approved another round of soil and air testing at Williams.
The state Department of Health âhas responded to many community concerns regarding Williams Elementary School,â Paul D. Myers, the departmentâs administrator in Alachua County, told The Intercept in an email. The state environmental protection department âcontinues to monitor the successful remediation at Williams Elementaryâ and will keep working with the school district and city âon any contaminated or potentially contaminated properties,â wrote Kathryn Craver, an external affairs director at the departmentâs northeast district.
An Intercept investigation reveals:
- The city of Gainesville, Florida, placed a landfill in the backyard of Joseph Williams Elementary School in the 1950s. The dump was closed 60 years ago, but even after other environmental issues were discovered on the site, it was never fully cleaned up.
- Years of soil and air testing have revealed substantial evidence of environmental toxins on the property, which sits in a chronically underfunded and predominately Black part of town. In 2020, the level of one carcinogen detected at the site peaked at up to 218 times higher than whatâs considered safe in residential areas.
- The Alachua County School District has cleaned up some soil from the property. But neither the county nor the state has agreed to fully clean up the site or conduct a comprehensive study of the toxinsâ impact on studentsâ health.
This situation in Gainesville is not an anomaly. Dozens of schools across 35 states sit on or adjacent to former, or currently open, landfills, according to The Interceptâs analysis of news articles, state databases, and public records from across the country. From New York to Ohio, there have been many reported cases of illness, predominantly cancer, from both teachers and students who have attended schools next to hazardous waste.
These occurrences primarily happen in lower-income communities of color, as reported by The Intercept.
There is no federal regulation prohibiting the placement of new schools on or near dump sites, nor is there a requirement for schools near landfills to clean up the area. Although the Environmental Protection Agency was given the authority by Congress in 2011 to create voluntary guidelines for school siting, these guidelines are discretionary and do not apply to existing schools.
Under Florida state law, it is illegal to build a new K-12 school on or near a contaminated site unless measures are taken to ensure that children are not exposed to dangerous levels of contaminants. However, contamination issues at schools like Williams Elementary in Florida often surface years after the school’s construction.
The lack of regulation addressing long-standing problems exacerbates the ongoing crisis of environmental racism. According to Sara Grineski, a sociology professor at the University of Utah, there is a persistent pattern of devaluing people of color and forcing them into less desirable environments.
Williams Elementary, named after a Black businessman who built it in the 1930s, was located near a landfill that caused pollution and health issues for students due to its impractical geography. Despite media coverage of the landfill’s consequences, the city did not address the issue until petitions led to the dump’s relocation.
The EPA’s identification of Superfund sites, which are polluted and hazardous locations, has often overlooked marginalized communities. In underfunded areas like East Gainesville, the long-term contamination potential of closed landfills is often forgotten due to a lack of resources. The Alachua County School Board was directed by Gainesville city commissioners to conduct soil samples after concerns were raised about contamination from a former landfill and underground storage tanks on the property. Despite initial reassurances that testing the soil was not a major issue, further investigations revealed excessively contaminated soil polluting the groundwater, attributed to underground tanks containing heating oil. The tanks were registered in 1987, but their installation dates were unknown.
In 1988, the school district applied for state-contracted cleanup due to suspected contamination from the tanks. The site received a high ranking score, indicating a significant potential threat. However, state officials determined that excavating the contaminated soil would be too costly due to its depth.
Conflicting reports emerged regarding the removal of the tanks, with some sources stating that three tanks were abandoned in place by 1991, while others claimed that three tanks were removed in 1988 and one in 1991. Regardless, the corroded tanks had leaked oil into the soil, leading to widespread contamination. Despite these findings, the issue was largely forgotten for two decades.
Years later, residents like DeVante Moody, who attended a nearby school, began to connect their health issues to the site’s history. Moody, who experienced respiratory problems as a child, later learned that the school was built on a former landfill. Research has since linked the area to high rates of asthma hospitalizations, particularly affecting Black children.
In 2008, soil testing at Williams Elementary revealed high levels of carcinogenic chemicals, raising concerns about health risks for students and staff. Further investigations in 2015 confirmed the presence of hazardous compounds at levels well above safety thresholds. This situation reflects broader environmental justice issues, where communities of color often bear the brunt of exposure to harmful toxins. Grineski, a sociology professor at the University of Utah, stated that her research indicates that school districts with higher populations of foreign-born and Black children have increased concentrations of cancer-causing air toxins compared to other districts.
Despite the findings of Grineski’s research, the state’s health department, which investigates cancer clusters, does not believe that East Gainesville has a higher-than-normal incidence of cancer. However, Fields, a resident who has experienced health issues, strongly believes otherwise, citing the impact on families in the neighborhood.
In 2017, elevated levels of BaP, a cancer-causing toxin, were found in the soil at Williams Elementary due to petroleum contamination. Although the school district took steps to remove and replace the contaminated soil, some community members, like Moody and Fields, who have lived in East Gainesville for generations, are concerned about the long-term effects of exposure.
Despite efforts to address the contamination, concerns from community members persist, with some questioning the history of the area and its impact on residents’ health. Alexandria Owens, a pediatric critical-care nurse scientist, discovered information about the contaminated soil at Williams and began investigating the potential correlation between the toxins and the high asthma rates among children in the neighborhood.
Owens faced challenges in raising awareness about the health risks, as some officials dismissed her concerns. It was ultimately Owens’ advocacy that prompted the Florida Department of Health to conduct an assessment at the school. In July 2020, the department released a report stating that there were no expected health risks from exposure to groundwater and soil. However, the report was incomplete as it did not assess indoor air quality or evaluate the impact on students before 2016 due to lack of data.
The department raised concerns about the potential health risks from BaP in the soil vaporizing into the air. The report recommended continued assessment of indoor and outdoor air quality for this chemical. While Owens was relieved that an assessment was conducted, she continued to push for action from state and local officials.
She expressed frustration in a July 2021 email about communication breakdowns delaying the remediation process, which could worsen health issues in the community’s children. Owens believed that besides testing, more excavation was needed, and suggested relocating the school building.
Carlee Simon, the interim superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, agreed with Owens’s assessment and concluded that the only solution was to rebuild the entire school due to its age and contamination. However, budget priorities and disagreements within the school board delayed progress.
Despite plans for renovation in 2021, Williams Elementary remains in limbo. The district’s reconstruction plans were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, causing delays in projects. Soil and air testing at the school have revealed alarming levels of toxins, with BaP levels exceeding recommended limits and other chemicals found in the soil.
The ongoing testing and presence of toxins at Williams Elementary highlight the need for urgent action to address the environmental hazards at the school. Exposure to naphthalene through inhalation is linked to hemolytic anemia, liver damage, and neurological issues, as stated by the EPA. To address soil concentrations of naphthalene, the environmental department installed a venting system under one of the school’s buildings in late 2021.
Air quality has been a persistent concern at Williams, with a teacher reportedly complaining about it to the principal in 2020, as per an email obtained by The Intercept. State contractors have found elevated levels of chemicals in the air at the school, including chloroform, a potential carcinogen commonly used in industrial processes.
In February 2021, after urging from Owens, the state Department of Health released a report sampling indoor and outdoor locations at the elementary school. The report indicated the possibility of vapor intrusion, where chemicals migrate from the soil into the air, with concentrations of benzene, carbon tetrachloride, and chloroform posing considerable health risks. Continued air monitoring was recommended by the health department.
A firm contracted by the environmental department reported excess levels of naphthalene and BaP in the air and soil, respectively, that same month.
Despite the findings, the state health department highlighted Williams Elementary as a “Success Story,” stating that despite exposure to contaminated soil and air, adverse health effects were not expected among students and staff.
Research has shown that air pollution in schools can have severe effects on children, leading to externalizing behaviors. Experts emphasize the importance of addressing air quality issues in educational settings to prevent negative outcomes.
The school continues to grapple with polluted soil, with efforts to remove it ongoing. The environmental department is willing to investigate and cover the cost of remediation if the school board approves renovations or demolition.
Recent air testing revealed excessive levels of chloroform, prompting continued monitoring due to the unknown source and the population exposed, which includes children. The environmental department maintains a passive venting system and conducts indoor air monitoring out of caution.
While the school conducted another round of testing, there are no public records of testing at Lincoln Middle School nearby. The community in East Gainesville is also fighting against the expansion of a landfill close to the schools, raising concerns about potential health risks.
“The people in our neighborhoods have experienced enough tragedies,” said Fields during a county meeting on the proposed landfill plans. Community members express concerns about the impact of the landfill on their health and well-being.
The article was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Please rephrase this sentence. Rewrite the sentence.
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