After reading about the damaged heating tank and the decontamination at Crestview last summer, someone with a child at the school contacted the Suburban to ask whether the school is safe. This particular child suffers headaches and nausea at school but feels good at home.

Maxeen Jolin, the coordinator of communications services at the Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier school board, assured the Suburban that all necessary decontamination work was completed as of September 19, 2013.*

This work is not registered as complete on the Quebec Environment’s list of contaminated lands.

Hélène Proteau, a spokesperson from the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement, de la Faune et des Parcs (MDDEFP), said that the provincial database can’t be updated until the ministry receives and verifies technical reports so that it can confirm that the work has been done properly. That hasn’t happened.

Sometimes it takes some time for the consultant to receive laboratory reports or other details that might be needed,” she said. “As soon as the school board gets a satisfactory report from their consultant, they’ll send it to us so that we can verify that the results conform to our requirements. If all that works out properly, then we’ll report that the land has been rehabilitated on our records.”

Proteau also provided more details about the work that was done.

We learned of this file in 2006,” she said. “They removed much of the contaminated soil in 2006, but the work was so close to the building that to remove any more soil would require structural supports for because the foundation would not support the building on its own if they continued. That was in autumn. So the school board put other soil in the excavation until the final project could be completed. It took several years to do that work, but it was done in 2013.”

When the Suburban told the Madame Proteau about the parent who complained, she suggested that any concerned parent should speak to the CLSC near the school to get support and ensure that proper tests are completed.

Note: This article appeared on page 6 of the Laval edition of The Suburban yesterday.

*This date appeared incorrectly in an earlier version.

Previous Story on February 13, 2014:

Crestview Elementary School Decontaminated

Parents at Crestview Elementary in Laval were told little about the big decontamination project in their schoolyard until a construction strike delayed the work.

After winning the tender that went out on May 27, 2013, Les Paysagistes Damiano Inc. was supposed to finish the million dollar job before school restarted at the end of August.

That didn’t happen. Parents were told that the school wouldn’t be able to open on time by phone and via letter from governing board chair Paul Leal in early August.

“As you know, the school yard at Crestview has been going through the decontamination process over the summer months and we have been getting regular updates on the work being done,” he wrote. “Most of the updates have been positive and on schedule. However, the last update wasn’t so positive as the decontamination process has hit a few snags, particularly with the depth in which the oil has spread. Another factor that has added additional delays to the work being done was the heavy rains we recently had, complicating the decontamination process even further.”

Leal’s letter doesn’t mention the construction strike that school board commissioners were told was the reason for the delay at their August meeting.

Instead of beginning at Crestview in August, 247 children were transported daily to Phoenix Alternative Elementary School. Crestview reopened on September 23.

This isn’t the first time that environmental dangers have forced Crestview Elementary School to be cleaned up.

An oil tank was due to be replaced in the summer of 2006, and that project got delayed a full year after an unusually-large oil leak was discovered. The same project also found contaminated soil on the grounds of Our Lady of Peace Elementary School, but it was minimal enough to be removed as soon as it was found.

The Crestview oil tank couldn’t be repaired until after Wilfrid Laurier School board officials approved the engagement of Gestenv on October 25, 2006. That $72,982.72 contract covered replacing the leaking oil tank, disposing of the contaminated soil beneath, backfilling and excavating.

In 1999, the school board hired Isolation Algon to remove friable asbestos from the building for $71,586.41.

Last summer’s decontamination and repaving cost more than ten times as much as either of those contracts—a total of $1,057,068.19 with tax.

That’s one third of the entire worth of the property according to Laval’s tax rolls. The circa-1963 two-storey building at 750 Avenue du Devonshire is worth $1.7 million. The lot it sits on—number 1189782—measures 1,098,130 square metres and is evaluated at $1.4 million for a total property worth of $3.1 million.

Approval of this latest clean-up also went through an altogether different process than what occurred in either 2006 or 1999. This time the decision was included within a three-year capital expenditure resolution (#CC-130626-MR-0192), which was approved last May. According to those minutes, Quebec’s ministry of education (Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport) and the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board approved the amount under Quebec’s “passif environnemental” law, which normally is used to rehabilitate old mining sites.

Crestview does appear on a list of contaminated lands maintained by Quebec’s environment ministry. It is one of two schools in Laval on which cleanups are identified as “not completed.”

According to that site, the Crestview property is contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in addition to petroleum hydrocarbons C10 to C50. Hydrocarbons usually contain benzene, which is known to cause cancer in humans. Aromatic hydrocarbons are considered risky too because they can be absorbed through the skin or by breathing in addition to taking them in through the digestive system. Buildings located on or near hydrocarbon deposits are at risk for something known as “vapour intrusion,” in which airborne toxins infiltrate the premises causing breathing difficulties, fainting and headaches.

The other “not completed” rehabilitation is located at College Laurier. That site is contaminated with heavy metals.

Leblanc Secondary School, St-Gérard, Collège Laval, the Garderie Brins d’Éveil, Le Virage and the Le Virage Annexe, Notre-Dame-de-Pontmain, Ste-Cécile, Ste-Marguerite, both St-Gilles pavilions, St-Norbert and four Commission scolaire de Laval buildings (956 montée Gravel,  3730 boul. Lévesque Ouest, 475 66e Avenue and 800, place Sauvé Laval) are all on the list too, but they were cleaned up in 2001 and 2002.

Our Lady of Peace Elementary School is not listed on the ministry site, which can be found at http://www.mddep.gouv.qc.ca/sol/terrains/terrains-contamines.

Note: This article appeared on page one of the Laval edition of the Suburban yesterday.